A timed bomb is EXACTLY what this sounds like. The plane was supposed to leave at 8:00 a.m. By 9:15 it would have been over water and no traces of the plane, the recorders, or the passengers would have been found. This is Lockerbie all over again - remember Pan Am 103 was also late and changed course, which was why the bomb exploded with the plane over land instead of water. Stupid terrorists again. They seem to be completely dense about the fact that planes rarely leave on time, especially when they have a full complement of passengers going abroad, as this one did today. The black boxes will be recovered from this plane which will tell us a lot, just as with Pan Am 103, and if there was a bomb, the materials will be found in the wreckage.Barometric trigger would be the way to go. But it could be they have a reason for not liking or trusting barometric triggers. Plus the bomb may have been a rushed job and the bomb trigger only knew how to do it with a timer.
An airplane taken down by a terrorist will make up everyone take notice. If the plane falls into the water (the optimum) or crashes on land is secondary.
On CBS Bob Orr reporting from Washington, D.C. said about ten minutes ago that he was handed a report that said the WH and Bush Admin. are "thinking" about grounding all departing flights (nationwide?). Again, he said this was a "report" of them "thinking" about doing this. No confirmed report yet. Why would they ground planes if it seems to be a "mechanical" failure?
Also, ABC and Fox went to local programming at 11 am.