A test explosion for a BBC documentary suggests that the “underpants bomber” would have failed to bring down Flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009, even if he’d managed to detonate his trousers. Likely death toll: 2, namely the bomber and the unlucky soul sitting next to him.
A controlled blast on a Boeing 747, using the same explosives that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is accused of smuggling on board, failed to burst the fuselage. …
Captain J Joseph, an air accident investigator, and [Dr John Wyatt, an international terrorism and explosives adviser to the UN] both concluded that the quantity of explosive used was nowhere near enough needed to rupture the skin of a passenger plane. …
‘I’m very confident that the flight crew could have taken this aeroplane without any incident at all and get it on the ground safely.’
However, the experts said that the death of the suspected bomber and the passenger beside him would have been traumatic for passengers.
‘It would have been quite horrific. Obviously the blast itself would cause eardrum rupture,’ Dr Wyatt added.
Captain Joseph said the noise and the smoke would have been awful, ‘not to mention the parts of the bodies that were disintegrated as part of the explosion’.
But Captain Joseph said the experiment could help to put air travellers at ease: ‘I think this should be a confidence-builder for passengers.’
But Captain Joseph said the experiment could help to put air travellers at ease: ‘I think this should be a confidence-builder for passengers.’
Um, I think the Captain is working with a different definition of “confidence” than the rest of us.
I was going to say the same thing. Having a busted eardrum and disintegrated parts of bodies all over me, plus the smoke, would not meet my criteria for “without any incident” and “confidence-builder”. But that’s just me.
I’m with Cheney. This all happened because Barack Obama is not serious about terrorism. Serious Presidents provoke serious terrorists, who actually know how to blow up something other than their own balls.
Casey – so you are saying that Obama isn’t a serious one, cuz he doesn’t have any ? (grin)
Serious Presidents provoke serious terrorists, who actually know how to blow up something other than their own balls.
I’m with Casey. It took a serious President to provoke 9/11.