Worst-case terrorist scenario
Oct 19, 2007 | 4:27 pm
#61
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Oct 19, 2007 | 4:44 pm
#63
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Sorry, but a reactionary 'just ban everything' approach to security is neither workable, nor prudent.
Risk management is key....anyway, why get so bent over this scenario while cargo remains unscreened and through-the-fence employees are not screened, nor are their facilities really sterile.
We have bigger fish to fry than chase pie in the sky scenarios.
Oct 19, 2007 | 4:47 pm
#64
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I can buy a WiFi sniffer for ten bucks. How much do you think it would cost to equip each airplane with a dozen wearable broadband alarms for the crew's use?
What ban?
"Adequate protection" has a numerator and a denominator. When the safety of many hundreds of people is involved, a certain magnitude of outlay is justifiable.
Oct 19, 2007 | 4:49 pm
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boj...e_bombing_plot (Second paragraph.)
Oct 19, 2007 | 4:51 pm
#67
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America is not the only target of jihadists. I don't think terrorists necessarily care who they kill, just as long as they can cause a lot of terror with a little bit of resources. If they hit Americans, so much the better.
Oct 19, 2007 | 4:53 pm
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Oct 19, 2007 | 5:08 pm
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Come on, the comic books say it's possible. So this must be the biggest fish in the sea to catch.
Oct 19, 2007 | 5:17 pm
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I've thought of several ways to create mayhem but I'm not going to give people ideas. I hate it when they do it to planes. They should double the penalty for terrorist attacks against planes and airports.....kill them 2 times over.
Oct 19, 2007 | 5:34 pm
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If you go over the links in this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=619038 you will find any quantity of both anecdotal and systematic evidence that electronic devices can interfere with aircraft control and navigation systems.
Now suppose you are a terrorist cell intent upon bringing down a few dozen U.S.-flag airliners (as in the Manila plot) and you know that broadband RF noise of sufficient power could do it. Remember - these people are fanatical, not stupid.
Could you disguise your device as a laptop or GameBoy and walk right onto a plane with it? Or build a timer into it and secrete it in a checked bag or cargo shipment?
Now suppose you are a terrorist cell intent upon bringing down a few dozen U.S.-flag airliners (as in the Manila plot) and you know that broadband RF noise of sufficient power could do it. Remember - these people are fanatical, not stupid.
Could you disguise your device as a laptop or GameBoy and walk right onto a plane with it? Or build a timer into it and secrete it in a checked bag or cargo shipment?
With all the problems surrounding electronics on planes, I would like to think that many of the issues you have, have been discussed during aircraft design.
Oct 19, 2007 | 7:07 pm
#72
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So can I - without even working at it. But this one is fairly cheap to enforce.
I would like to think so, too. But aircraft engineers of every stripe - airframe, powerplant, and avionics - have that old weight constraint line in their linear models. They do everything they know how to about imaginable scenarios (including lightning), but my guess would be that extraordinary amounts of RF noise directed at electronics are outside of their box - and weight limit. Cf. the architectural engineers who designed the Twin Towers.
I would like to think so, too. But aircraft engineers of every stripe - airframe, powerplant, and avionics - have that old weight constraint line in their linear models. They do everything they know how to about imaginable scenarios (including lightning), but my guess would be that extraordinary amounts of RF noise directed at electronics are outside of their box - and weight limit. Cf. the architectural engineers who designed the Twin Towers.
Oct 19, 2007 | 7:34 pm
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A pity he failed to anticipate copyright laws.
This is the kind of thinking that the NTSB typically highlights as an early link in an accident chain.
Last edited by birdstrike; Oct 19, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Oct 20, 2007 | 10:38 am
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The glideslope transmitter is 1,000 feet down the runway from the threshold, and the localizer transmitter is at its far end. Equipment powerful enough to disrupt the ILS at that range wouldn't even fit in a hotel room, much less be carried there in a suitcase. Anyway, waiting for instrument conditions that would make the landing phase vulnerable could be very tedious - and many airports never have Cat II, much less Cat III weather.
But if a laptop-sized RF broadband noise generator were located a few feet from a critical harness of aircraft wiring, who knows what havoc could be wrought?
But if a laptop-sized RF broadband noise generator were located a few feet from a critical harness of aircraft wiring, who knows what havoc could be wrought?