Hijackers' Interest in Crop Dusters Still Puzzles Terrorism Investigators

WSJ | November 19, 2001 | By JOHN J. FIALKA, TOM HAMBURGER and GARY FIELDS

[mombonn]

Interesting new tidbits, I hadn't heard that they were asking about how far it would fly on a tank of gas before. I HATE crop dusters - we have one that buzzes the house every fall.

[Bikers4Bush]

What's so puzzling about them wanting to fly something that is designed to hold a large amount of liquid?

They didn't want them to spray anthrax or any other biological or chemical hazard.

They wanted them so they could turn them into flying bombs just like the big jets. For the love of god how f'ing confusing is it?

The fact that they wanted to know how far it went on a single tank is a red flag to me that they had no intentions of making a round trip.

They were gonna fill the tanks with airplane fuel and play kamikaze.

[aculeus]

Fascinating.

Bumping for FR brainiacs' contributions.

[Pearls Before Swine]

I wonder if crop dusters were "Plan B" for flying bombs if airline hijacking didn't work out. Inquiries seem to have been made in many places in a disorganized way, by stupid rather than clever people. I bet a group of cells were flooded with the instruction to get this info and pass it back up the chain. I wonder if this thought has occurred to anyone in the know. I would think about going after every Sam and checking out their comings and goings, and their associates.

An alternate thought is to use them as dusters--maybe it is possible to alter droplet sizing with minor pressure and orifice changes. Maybe its nigh-impossible (as I hope). I dunno.

[mombonn]

Thanks for the bump - I'm off to ballet class. I'll be interested to see replies later on.

[Shermy]

"Were terrorists planning to spread anthrax from a crop duster? That would be very difficult to do effectively, because anthrax droplets need to be small enough to float, and crop dusters are designed to spray droplets that don't."

Assumptions: The terrorists were informed enough to know that the crop dusters would not do this "effectively." Terrs would not do it because it would be "difficult." Terrs would not have knowledge to make it more "effective."

[Lady GOP]

There is a govt owned cropduster which has been missing since 10/1.

[aculeus]

They wanted them so they could turn them into flying bombs just like the big jets. For the love of god how f'ing confusing is it?

Don't waste your time on FR. Volunteer for the FBI, Sherlock.

[motexva]

Yes, almost certainly that's what they wanted to do. For targets even "softer" and less structurally sound than WTC. Think Sky Needle in Seattle, St. Louis Arch or maybe just a crowd of people at a sporting event or similar gathering.

[Bikers4Bush]

I'd be interested to see the proximity of nuclear reactors to the places where the questions were asked.

My thought would be that they'd want something more disruptive to the stability of our way of life.

Taking out a nuclear plant or two would definately de-stabalize our energy system and drive the cost of oil up.

[Starrgaizr]

Your argument that the crop dusters' tanks were to be filled with fuel seems plausible, except for the fact that even if you want to fly a round trip, you want to know a plane's range. Also, coupled with the hazardous materials trucking anecdotes, it seems to me as if they were in part simply accumulating a diverse set of skills and capabilities to be used as Osama later decided.

[Clinton's a rapist]

They didn't want them to spray anthrax or any other biological or chemical hazard.

Since Moussaoui was also interested in “wind patterns” relating to crop-dusters , your theory doesn't make much sense.

One thing I'm not clear on, and somebody may be able to cast light on this issue, is whether crop-dusters would have any utility in spreading the anthrax sent to Daschle. It would seem to me that mixing that anthrax with a liquid would defeat the object of the milling and anti-static coating that was applied o it -- it would actually be more effective to just toss the powder out of the side of a plane. If the crop dusters weren't for dispersing anthrax, what were they for?

[Starrgaizr]

Another scenario: spray a large crowd or large area target with avgas, then crash into it if it doesnt catch fire spontaneously.

[Wright is right!]

"There is a govt owned cropduster which has been missing since 10/1."

While there IS a missing govt.-owned crop-duster missing, the airplane in question had all of its spraying gear and tanks removed before it set out from Colombia to the US. As it sits now, it's just a cramped single-seat, single-engine plane that's slow but maneuverable. Not suited to much of anything.

BTW, anyone who would inquire about a crop duster's performance would ask how long the craft could remain aloft and in service on a tank of fuel - definitely NOT how far it could fly.

Michael

[Starrgaizr]

Or simply fire a flare into it in a low pass...

[Bikers4Bush]

My personal thought is that we've been putting too much emphasis on the terrorists using biological or chemical weapons.

Not that they didn't want to or weren't developing those methods. Everytime they hit us it was with bombs. Bombs at embassy's, bombing the Cole and in essence bombing the WTC's and Pentagon.

I would have thought that they'd be pushing the development of dirty nukes or worse for use against us in the U.S. instead of working with more difficult methods.

[Lazamataz]

!!!!

I have an idea!!

Nuclear waste dispersal.

[Lazamataz]

Nah! I think I just hit it.

800 lbs of nuclear waste, spread thinly and uniformly, would sure mess up a lot of property values.

[Starrgaizr]

Well, how does one handle waste radioactive enough to cause a major problem and not too much to survive long enough to gather the stuff, get it in tanks, and fly the mission? Someone might want to try, but think of the crop duster as the poor man's fuel-air explosive warhead.

[Bikers4Bush]

What better way to meet allah than to be glowing?