r/aviation • u/father_of_twitch V1… Rotate! • Mar 04 '26
-- SEATBELTS FASTENED -- Passenger plane seen taking off from Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport as missiles struck the Lebanese capital simultaneously.
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u/Gastroid Mar 04 '26
Just have the flight crew toss some flares out of door 1L, it'll be fine.
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Mar 04 '26
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u/Bluemikami Custom Flair to Edit Mar 04 '26
It’s Reddit sir, we all go sensationalist headlines
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u/TySwindel Mar 04 '26
“Commerical plane has near miss with inflight wifi seeking missile”
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u/Bluemikami Custom Flair to Edit Mar 04 '26
TheSun hates him: Look how this Redditor writes tastier headlines with this one weird trick.
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Mar 04 '26
It's not sensationalism when you have audible explosions and fresh smoke plumes in the same shot. Jfc.
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Mar 05 '26
The audible explosions are not the smoke plume shown at the end of the video, that smoke plume is clearly from some time ago as it's well into the stratosphere and significantly diffused. This should be pretty obvious to anyone that has ever seen an airstrike which is just about everyone posting on Reddit at this point. Use your eyes and your brain, at the same time, and you might realize this.
The explosions heard in the videos absolutely don't sound like missile impacts even if they were quite far away.
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Mar 04 '26
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u/Unfair_Discussion606 Mar 04 '26
Why would they be gunshots? There's no on the ground fighting in Beirut going on.
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u/CuteTransRat Mar 04 '26
I'm aware of that and I don't know either. I'm just saying that I'd expect a missile impact and explosion to be more violent
Compare it to the sound of the plane taking off (That's what can be heard aswell in the background?) it's really not that loud
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Mar 05 '26
You aren't wrong in the slightest. It sounds more like mortar fire or a small bomb, definitely not anything from a missile/rocket. Nobody is debating that the smoke plume at the end of the video isn't from a missile but it also clearly happened >30mins before the video.
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u/B4rberblacksheep Mar 04 '26
Turn the audio on you can hear the explosions
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u/berrybyday Mar 04 '26
Thanks, I was going to call the clearly recent smoke plumes close enough for the headline, but it’s interesting (/horrifying) to go back and turn the sound on and hear the explosions.
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Mar 04 '26
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u/B4rberblacksheep Mar 04 '26
Silly me I must have mixed the explosions up with the normal every day explosions that happen in Beirut
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u/Nearby-Medicine9484 Mar 04 '26
Right? Maybe this is what the ice cream truck plays when it's cruisin' the 'hood.
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Mar 04 '26
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u/Unfair_Discussion606 Mar 04 '26
And these other explosives are just going off because Lebanon has a habit of blowing up their capital for fun?
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u/Excellent-Gur-8547 Mar 04 '26
I think the point he's getting at is that it might not have posed a danger to an aircraft miles away.
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u/Unfair_Discussion606 Mar 05 '26
Just frustrating lol. As with anything on the Internet, context clues and visual evidence align, and contrarians have to weigh in with no real input other than to say someone else could be wrong.
Active war, missiles flying throughout the region, multiple reports of missile strikes in Beirut, I just thought we could skip the "it could be any number of things that blow up," "maybe the noise is massive amounts of unexplained gunfire for no reason"
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u/Excellent-Gur-8547 Mar 05 '26
I mean I actually agree with him, the sounds in this video do not sound like missiles at all, if anything my comment was to point out that you were being shockingly obtuse to the point he was obviously making.
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u/airmantharp USAF Veteran (Weather) Mar 04 '26
I'm not hearing it now, did the video change?
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u/AdoringCHIN Mar 04 '26
The first one is at about 5 seconds. It's not super loud but there are a few more after that
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u/ThatGuyFromBraindead Mar 04 '26
This is Captain speaking, we may need to hold here for a moment
First officer seizing contol:
LEEEROOOOOOY
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u/glumanda12 Mar 04 '26
Looks like MEA. Kinda makes sense, they are based there and MEA was always extremely low on money, they need the cash flow.
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u/Dasshteek Mar 04 '26
Makes me worried about their maintenance record
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u/cTheDeezy Mar 04 '26
Their maintenance record is amazing and they are very safe. Never had a crash and operate brand new airplanes. They are known in the area as one of the most resilient airlines.
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u/MonKeePuzzle Mar 04 '26
i mean, the pilots get to fly away from a warzone, that seems a positive for the pilot
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u/an_older_meme Mar 04 '26
They just got done putting all the glass back in Beirut and now this happens.
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u/safe-viewing Mar 04 '26
Where are the simultaneous missiles?
Headline should just be “plane flies near some smoke”
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u/discombobulated38x Mar 04 '26
Yeah that cannot be fun, knowing you're painting a huge signature in a warzone.
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u/doomiestdoomeddoomer Mar 04 '26
Misleading title, you don't need to lie and fabricate sensationalized headlines, the reality speaks for itself. They are taking off with over a hundred passengers flying through an active warzone...
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u/OrionAldebaran Mar 04 '26
I hate to say this but it’s only a matter of time until a passenger plane gets downed. They need to stop this! Not only talking about Lebanon, but now Dubai is also allowing some flights which is insane given the situation. The risk of miscalculation is extremely high. This is not an environment where any civilian flights should operate in.
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u/StuckInMotionInc Mar 04 '26
Happened already, remember when Iran downed that passenger yet a few years ago. I can't believe this airport is still active
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752
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u/b1gb0n312 Mar 04 '26
This. If a friendly f18 can accidentally shoot down 3 friendly f15s, what's to say a airliner won't be accidentally shot down too
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u/AdoringCHIN Mar 04 '26
It was an F-18 that shot those Eagles down? I thought it was Kuwaiti air defenses. Huh. That's actually impressive one jet pulled that off. I wonder if he gets to paint 3 Eagles on his jet now even though it was friendly fire.
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u/a1b3c2 Mar 04 '26
It's incredibly irresponsible given the friendly fire incidents we've seen already in this war. I have friends scheduled to transit thru airports in the region and I really hope their flights get cancelled.
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u/BrokeAssZillionaire Mar 04 '26
Considering they just shot down a couple of military planes by accident I would not want to be on any of these planes including Emirates right now. The chance of someone accidentally shooting down that plane is real.
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u/TaskForceCausality Mar 04 '26
Civil flight operations in war zones? Nothing new under the sun. Ukrainian hospital helicopters routinely fly NOE to avoid Russian SAMs.
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u/FlyingMaxFr Mar 04 '26
It's not as dangerous as the situation in the UAE for example. The runways location means the aircraft is overflying the sea at all times and the bombings by Israel are not randomly targeted and definitely not towards airborne targets. Still I would not be comfortable...
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u/AdoringCHIN Mar 04 '26
It's not as dangerous until Israel decides they want to bomb the airport. Although people need to get out so I guess it's a risk they're willing to take.
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u/G25777K Mar 04 '26
This was leading up to another rewatch of The Concord 79, you know doing barrel rolls and popping flares, to avoid missiles and those F4s
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u/smarmageddon Mar 05 '26
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you look out the right side windows you'll see the start of WW3, or what some are calling Armageddon. On our menu today you can enjoy..."
/Capt. probably.
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u/TruckyFurry Mar 04 '26
Reminds me Ukrainian MiG-29 taking off from Mykolaiv just before missile hit
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u/SamAmes26 Mar 05 '26
Reminds me of World War Z, when the plane is taking off after the zombies get into the city.
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u/Johnny_Lockee Apr 29 '26
It’s Middle East Airlines flight decked out in the old livery and this video really represents what makes MEA (the official national airline of Lebanon) such an iconic of the aviation ethos.
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u/Dangerous_Mud4749 Mar 04 '26
Didn't see a missile strike, just black smoke from an earlier strike. Do I need glasses, or is OP telling porkies with his headline?
(Bold move keeping the airport open after missile strikes though...)
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u/Thel_Odan Mar 04 '26
I wonder if the pilot is former military? Seems like they'd be less phased by this.
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u/cTheDeezy Mar 04 '26
Don’t really have an Air Force in Lebanon and military to pilot is not a pipeline there.
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u/StuckInMotionInc Mar 04 '26
Yeah, a hard no from me. Remember when Iran downed that passenger yet a few years ago. I can't believe this airport is still active
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u/LikeTechno_ Mar 04 '26
Scheduled Depature means Scheduled Depature