Posted on 11/12/2001 12:18:32 PM PST by Steven W.
Gov. Pataki is reporting that the pilot of the ill-fated American Airlines flight dumped most of the airplane's fuel over Jamaica Bay, anticipating a crash landing and most likely indicating a trained response to onboard mechanical failures.
Geez, let's see, a guy wants to take down an airplane. So he goes to a gun store, buys a $4000 firearm, or has one smuggled in at even greater cost, 'cause we all know the Brady Laws wouldn't have allowed him to get one. Then he goes to the end of the runway at JFK, avoiding being seen the whole time, and takes what has GOT to be the luckiest shot in the world. Yep, that's JUST what happened. And he's disappointed because he didn't get his 72 virgins.
Besides, Alethia, if you had read earlier posts, you would see that the part of being the debris field was NOT the gist of the post. You must read in context. What I was stating was that if you were to make the shot, the engine would have exploded rather quickly, and would have ended up at the end of the runway somewhere. If you have a problem with this, I'll give you the same assignment that I gave Travis; contact an engineer and see if they can illustrate the part of the engine that would have been hit that would cause catastrophic failure four minutes later.
To avoid confusion with other threads: Yes, this Airbus A300-605 has no capability to dump fuel. Some other, earlier variants of the A300 DO have the ability to dump fuel. (A300-B2's and A300-B4's) I am not being contrary, I just want to try to end some of the confusion.
That's who they are focusing on. And anyone who came within eyeshot of that jet in the last 24 hours. You betcha.
The sniper would want a large two engine jet to maximize the odds of a crash: a 4 engine 747 would be less likely to crash after losing one engine on takeoff.
That being said, the nature of jet engines is basically a series of highly pressurized, compressed, and explosive cycles (or, as it's more crudely put, "bang, suck and blow."). The orange flash would *not* be limited to a bomb. It takes focus and knowledge to mentally process and interpret what you see when seeing an accident unfold ... the lag in mental reaction time is part of that process.
Who said it took four minutes to fail, and the failure happened in one second after four minutes? The (hypothetical) shot into the engine on take off could hit a secondary system which leads to a chain reaction.
I am only positing a hypothesis which has not been mentioned, but which is realistic, hard to prevent, and which could happen tomorrow even if it didn't today.
An arab moslem jihadist jet sniper is not going to care if the jet kills him on crashing, in fact he would welcome his chance to collect his 72 virgins sooner rather than later.
some large rapidly generated force was necessary to detach that jet engine and break the plane into pieces. see www.Debka.com for a physical description of events which sound much more like a bombing than the damage which would result from a dislodged jet rotor.
As far as it taking a lucky shot, you must not shoot rifles much. A 12' diameter engine getting bigger and bigger in your scope as the jet rushed straight toward you down the runway would not present any difficulty. None at all, the shot could be made 10 out of 10 times.
If the "4 minute delay" (?) bothers you so much, (why?) why do you assume a bullet through an engine cannot cause a chain reaction, snipping a fuel line for example, which leads to a fire after a short delay?
As far as MY contacting an engineer etc bla bla bla, sorry, that's not how it works. I postit a hypothesis, YOU need to shoot it down and disprove it. You haven't come close.
I would envision the (hypothetical) runway sniper using a van soundproofed on the inside with cheap foam mattresses. The exact shooting position would be determined in advance so that a shooting chair and rifle rest could be set up inside the van in advance. The shot could be taken through a removed small rear door window. The shooter would drive to his pre-determined road side parking place, get in the chair, and use his 12 or 20 power off-the-shelf scope to observe the jets as they turned into the take off position. Seeing the big twin engine jet with the American Airlines logo, he would have plenty of time to settle in for his one and only shot.
As the jet races down the runway, he holds his crosshairs just above the center of the 12' engine. As the wheels come off the tarmac, he fires.
Even a .30 caliber slug through the engine turbines could cause the massive failure he seeks: even after 1, 2, 3 or 4 or 10 minutes. What does he care?
If the jet lands right on him, he screams "Allah Akbar" with a big grin on his face, and goes to collect his 72 virgins right away.
If the jet crashes beyond him or not at all, he gets back into his driver's seat, and checks his map for the route to Miami International, O'hare, Logan, or Dulles.
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So why do I go to the trouble of pitching this hypothesis? Because even if there was no sniper at the end of the runway at JFK today, there might be next week. The national guardsmen standing around looking scary in the terminals doing nothing but providing pseudo-security PR, should instead be patrolling the airport runway approaches with their M-16A2s, looking for my hypothetical but entirely possible (even likely) snipers.
What are they doing in the terminals anyway? Looking for hidden boxcutters with their X-ray eyes?
This was my first thought when I heard that an engine had fallen off. My sick mind then went on to it being open season on these people and was promptly slapped on the knunkles for even thinking this was anything but an accident by my fellow co-workers who have flight plans over the holidays. I would really like to see who had access to this plane before it took off.
The only way to defend against this action is to get these people out of this country and keep them out. Even NG patrols can not prevent this action.
In some ways it would be better if it was terrorists rather than delapitated planes that some are suggesting. At least terrorism could be prevented, but planes ready to fall apart can't be fixed.
I think like most places, once you're out, you're out. Hard to picture them letting someone back near one of those airplanes after that.
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