Originally Posted by woj

that pic doesn't add up...

according to that pic, 747 is about 10 lengths away from the fighter jet when the missile is fired, 747 is 230 feet long * 10 = 2300 feet = 0.7km

A. most short range air-to-air missiles don't even work in that range, for example:
K-13 (missile) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Operational range: 1.0 to 35.4km"

B. aircraft like that travels at 1000-2000km/hour (.27-.55km/sec)
so the pilot fired the missile when he was about 2 seconds away from the 747?
why would he wait till the last second when he could have fired the missile way earlier? I would think the likelihood of getting nailed by debris at such a short distance would be high?