[Milton Miteybad]

No, I don’t agree that the target was the plane. It’s not hard to get your hands on a plane by conventional means - this attracts way too much attention.

I must agree. It's almost as if some of us (those more given to conspiracy theories, I guess) believe that the only possible means for a terrorist state (or group) to obtain an airplane for future use is to hijack one that's loaded with passengers...like there's absolutely no way they couldn't just purchase one that didn't have 200+ people on it already. You could probably pick an empty plane up pretty cheap from a failed terrorist state that itself managed to procure a plane, but doesn't need it anymore because they couldn't come up with any WMDs to load onto it.

OK...so there's a bit of facetiousness there. But not everything under the sun is some big conspiracy.

[USAF80]

We also have to look at the possibility that an airborne assault will not be tried again because we are somewhat prepared for that. The terror masterminds are not dummies. I can think of several ways to cause massive damage to infrastructure and cause mass casualties and panic without using an aircraft and I’m sure they can too.

[mad_as_he$$]

http://www.aviationclassifieds.com/advertise-56803-4-0-747%2B400F+CARGO+NOSE+LOADING+%2A+2002++%2A

[MRadtke]

You do make a good point. But if they want to acquire a plane anonymously for some reason, a highjacking as in flight 370 seems like the way to go. That way there is deniability if the plane were involved in a future “incident”.