in rebuttal to myself below, I have to correct something. I just checked it out on the metric conversion chart. If 80 grams of PETN was all that the underwear bomber had on him, it would be very difficult to take the plane down. The only way I can imagine pulling it off is one of 2 ways:
1. Place the explosives right next to the fuel tank (which is not possible from the cabin) 2. Very carefully place the explosives on the window or very close to the window to guarantee the detonation will create at least somewhat of a hole in the side of the aircraft (this would be a little time consuming, which may be how he was caught) seekliberation --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "seekliberation" <seekliberat...@...> wrote: > > if 80 grams is all he had on him, the only way that amount would kill > everyone is if it were detonated at a very high altitude at max speed. It > would be enough to blow a hole in thes fuselage of the plane, causing a > massive change in cabin pressure, possibly causing a chain reaction that > forces the plane to fall apart from there (but once again, i'd have to talk > to a commercial pilot about that issue). But if the plane were close to > landing and only going about 200-250 mph, my guess is that the attack would > be survivable. > > seekliberation > > > From what I've read, "blow up the plane" and "bring the > > plane down" aren't necessarily equivalent. The explosive > > he had on him--80 grams, I believe--wasn't enough to blow > > the plane to bits, but it would have blown a hole in the > > fuselage. What the effects of that would have been depends > > on other things such as altitude, speed, etc., and the > > exact placement and size of the hole. > > > > Worst case, the plane could have come apart in midair; > > best case, it could have landed safely despite the hole. > > In between, the blast could have made the plane > > unmanageable and caused it to crash-land (debris from > > the blast damaging the wing flaps or the tail or slicing > > through the hydraulics, e.g.). And nearby passengers > > could have been sucked out through the hole if they > > weren't belted in. > > >
