Originally Posted by GUWonder

No detonation is necessary to get the governments of the world to go crazy.

Making it look like an attempted detonation of a dud would seem to be more effective for the terrorists than an actual in-flight detonation of explosives that took out the plane.

Look at the government's reaction to failed bombings and imaginary plotted bombings involving airlines since December 2001. Things are more crazy after these nutty situations than they were right after terrorists actually destroyed civilian passenger planes flying an OECD country flag.