I disagree as I believe that they intended to create terror not by just blowing up planes over the Atlantic, but by blowing them up over American cities so the planes parts and luggage and dead bodies would rain over our cities. That would be real psychological terror.
Exactly what I was thinking. I still remember Flight 182 on the morning of September 25, 1978. It smashed into a densely populated neighborhood only a few miles from my house at the time - it was amazing that only 7 people (on the ground) were killed. Had it not been a work day...
Here's an amateur photographer photographed N533PS just before impacting the ground.
![](http://www.airdisaster.com/special/psa.jpg)