[uglybiker]

Finding Hoover Dam from an airliner would be harder than most people think. Then add the fact that the dam is in a stretch of canyon barely wide enough to fit an airliner to begin with, I doubt it would be a target.

Not with airplanes anyway. Much easier to find the strip.

[Mike Darancette]

Much easier to find the strip.

The Strip is about a mile from the airport and on the flight path.

[Kevin Curry]

Finding Hoover Dam from an airliner would be harder than most people think.

Enter the coordinates in a portable GPS. That's how they zeroed in on the Pentagon from Boston.

Las Vegas is an interesting target choice (for cultural and "big show" reasons), but it is not necessarily the best choice as judged from the standpoint of operational ease. Las Vegas is easy to see at nighttime. But it is about 40 minutes by air from Los Angeles. Air Force fighters would be scrambled immediately from both Nellis and Luke to quickly intercept an errant airliner.

I don't believe there is any doubt that we would shoot down an errant Air France airliner down under such circumstances. The wreckage would be scattered over sparsely populated desert, likely limiting the deaths to the passengers and crew of the airliner itself.

The terrorists would have a much better chance of bringing an airliner down on a target in Los Angeles itself.