Blogtrek

Planning a Planeattack

I heard on the news today that terrorists may be planning another planeattack, similar to the Planeattack that occurred on 2001 September 11 claiming 3,000 lives. In my opinion, this is now much less likely to happen, due to changes since the 2001 Planeattack. So what must a terrorist do to conduct a planeattack? There are certain steps and requirements he has to follow, and these have become much harder to crack due to increased security measures and a changed attitude of the public. Here is what he is up against.

First, he has to get some buddies. A single person cannot conduct a planeattack. It's only one of him against the 3 person crew of the airplane. At least five hijackers are required to bring it off. Since any reasonably minded pilot will resist an order to fly the plane into a building, one of the hijackers must take flying lessons. The flying schools are all aware of what happened on 2001/9/11, and they will be suspicious of people wanting to learn how to find jetliners. But suppose one of them can fly the plane. They have to get on the plane with weapons. But they can't use knives or box cutters, because security screeners will now catch them and take them away. They have to use other objects (a camera was mentioned in the news) or even their fists, and that may not be as successful. When they are on the plane and attempt to take it over, they will now face a reinforced cockpit door and much stiffer resistance. The crew will counterattack, and may even have guns, legal or not. A charge of the cockpit may net a bullet hole in the head. The passengers may attack; this has already happened with United 93. Even if they incapacitate the crew and take over the airplane, the plane will fly in a strange direction and air traffic controllers will pick it up, regardless of whether transponders are on or not. And if they start heading for a building, the chances are more likely now than before that a military jet will be there to shoot it down, killing all aboard the plane but saving an entire building of occupants.

For these reasons, I am not concerned that another planeattack will occur. Terrorists ensured that when they conducted the 2001 Planeattack, making the public much more aware of these threats.