Malaysia Airlines MH370

[finn]

Another frightening scenario: what if this plane was disguised as Hashi says, and then loaded with a nuclear bomb and flown over a U.S. city?

What if it were loaded with a nuclear bomb and flown over a city that was not in the US, would that count as frightening too?

[Zarathustra]

Another frightening scenario: what if this plane was disguised as Hashi says, and then loaded with a nuclear bomb and flown over a U.S. city?

What if it were loaded with a nuclear bomb and flown over a city that was not in the US, would that count as frightening too?

Ha, cute. Of course I assume it would be frightening to those in the path. But I can't speak for them, hence my wording. I think it's also more likely that the U.S. would be a target. This looks like prep for a 9/11 2.0 to me. Commercial jets really are the easiest, deadliest weapon a terrorist could readily get his hands on.

Perhaps when they're used as missiles in a coordinated attack up your country's capitol and its financial center, then I will update my expectations.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Commercial jets really are the easiest, deadliest weapon a terrorist could readily get his hands on.

You are incorrect in your assessment. 18-wheeler trucks are far easier to obtain and can be used with deadly precision to launch an attack against a large metropolitan area.

Conjecture scenario. Get ten guys into CDL classes and train them on how to drive large trucks. Once they are certified, get them some guns and rifles through cartel contacts in Mexico, locate some smaller out-of-the-way rest areas or find some parked trucks on the side of the road and take them, making certain to disable any GPS equipment which might be installed. Pack the backs with regular drums full of gasoline into which you have partially dissolved large amounts of styrofoam pellets--this creates a sticky but still highly-flammable gel. At this point, even a smaller explosive device is all that will be required to detonate the trucks.
Have each truck approach a large city from different directions then have your team bring them to a halt underneath highway interchanges, making certain to put the trucks near to support columns while some of the trucks get jacknifed on purpose on the highways themselves. Blow the trucks under the interchanges, ideally collapsing some of them but at least weakening the columns to the point where the overpasses are unusable. You can blow the trucks on the highways, as well, but that really won't be necessary. Each jacknifed truck has two guys who will then exit the truck and begin taking out the people in the cars which are now stopped in the traffic jam. These teams may either continue taking out targets until they, themselves, are killed or take out a few dozen people then withdraw to the other side of the truck and make a getaway on the clear side of the jacknife.
At this point, you have caused mass destruction, you have brought a major city to a halt, caused significant loss of money, killed a couple of dozen people, and you have the opportunity to take out more while law enforcement is making its way to the area to try and deal with you. The trickiest parts of this operation would be obtaining the guns and the explosive devices needed to blow the drums but I don't know how easy it is to obtain these items since I do not attempt to get these things illegally. To move guns across the border is simple--use Falcon Lake, which occupies the border between Texas and Mexico. Border Patrol can't cover the entire lake and even only one guy with a small boat with a trolling motor or an oar to minimize noise could make the delivery at night.

You might not even have to fill some trucks with drums if you take a tanker truck which is already hauling gasoline or, if you want to be more vicious, something nasty like anhydrous ammonia. After stalling the ammonia truck you just have the guys open the valves and release the chemical.

On an unrelated note, I suppose you could also have two guys get a welding torch and cut some sections out of rail lines but the rail crews would notice this fairly quickly--there are sensors on tracks which look for disconnects--but if they miss it you could derail a train.

See? It doesn't take quasi-military training or precision and it doesn't take huge piles of cash to commit an atrocity. It takes only someone willing to plan it, a modicum of cash, and a crew willing to lose their lives for a cause (even if that cause is "to cause destruction and kill people").

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Well, that stifled the discussion for a while.

The latest news is that the most reliable data points to this flight ending up far to the south, about 2400 km WSW of Perth but no one is still certain why this happened--hijacking has pretty much been ruled out but not pilot suicide or mechanical problems. Between the deleted files on the pilot's in-home simulator and the mysterious cell phone call he received minutes before takeoff there does appear to have been something strange going on.

[rdhopeca]

Am I the only one wondering why the plane ended up that far south, and if the same people who took the plane dumped a bunch of metal out there "to be found" just in case?

Call me paranoid...

[Vraith]

Call me paranoid...

Ok...hello, paranoid.

Really, though, I'm a fan of subterfuge, plots, and evil subterranean forces attempting to rule the world.

Yet the most recent two, I just can't go for...
I think this plane is just a human error or mechanical failure
and Crimea is just cuz Putin is a desperate nasty prick with nukes.
No more, no less.

I could easily be wrong about the plane.
Not about Putin, though.

[Avatar]

Hahaha, now I think you're more likely to be wrong about Putin than the plane.

--A

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Am I the only one wondering why the plane ended up that far south, and if the same people who took the plane dumped a bunch of metal out there "to be found" just in case?

Call me paranoid...

That is too complex a plot. Anyone who wanted the plane for nefarious reasons would have gone to an airfield and ditched the passengers, put them to work, or killed them.

The most plausible hypotheses at this point are a) pilot suicide (to his irrational mind he though taking the passengers with him was a good idea) or b) mechanical failure coupled with the pilot and co-pilot succumbing to fumes or lack of oxygen. The plane could have stayed aloft on "auto-pilot" and wound up significantly off-course.