Hijackers' Interest in Crop Dusters Still Puzzles Terrorism Investigators

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

[N00dleN0gg1n]

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

I wonder if you could spray the gasoline out the nozzles and then fly back into it to ignite it, thus immolating yourself in the equivalent of a really monstrous FAE?

[Starrgaizr]

Well, we think alike. But suicide is not needed to do this. And one plane can make multiple passes on multiple targets, then fire a flare or something into each.

[Bikers4Bush]

It looks like you and Starrgaizr are on the same page.

Definately plausible. They question is would it have dispersed too much to be ignighted? You'd have to fly low and pretty much saturate an area to get it to catch before it all managed to evaporate I would think.

And if all these attacks were to be coordinated at the same time (Monday morning) the most likely targets would be infrastructure stuff as opposed to stadiums or other public gathering places.

[SGCOS]

On the bright side of the 9-11 attacks, we are no longer subject to those damn annoying planes pulling advertising banners over major sporting events.

Damn they were a pain in the butt.

[Starrgaizr]

Evaporation = ready to explode, if it hasn't dispersed too much. This would also explain wind pattern studies, etc. If dusters are good to get drops onto crops, they might be ideal to get a lot of explosive vapor over a target.

[Roger_W_Isom]

Here's a frightening THOUGHT.... Could OBL Loonies have SOMEHOW found a why to AEROSOLIZE EBOLA????? Now THAT a TRUELY frightening Thought!!!!

[eno_]

Oh please, they are not that stupid or without resources. They could probably buy as much high explosive as they could stuff into any size plane. If they wanted a kamikaze bomb, they would buy cheap and big. If they want a cropduster, they have something nastier in mind. I find it very disturbing that lost cropduster has not been found. It's also BS that crop dusters are short-range: the Ayers can be reconfigured to hold fuel in the spray tank, and was flown between South America and the U.S. on anti-drug missions. And it is lightly armored. Very unpleasant in the wrong hands.

[TiaS]

Sounds like an episode from the KEYSTONE COPS!

[Roger_W_Isom]

More frightening still... How about a weaponized versiom of Bubonic plague?????? Remember the Japs in WWII was studying Weaponizing Bubonic Plague in their INFAMOUS Unit 731A believe....

[balrog666]

Hijackers' Interest in Crop Dusters Still Puzzles Terrorism Investigators

Tell Larry, Moe, and Curly to retire now!

[Roger_W_Isom]

Thats SPACE NEEDLE in Seattle WA.. Also I Goofed earlier The Jap unit was 713 It was stationed in China... and made Mengele at Aushwitz look like a SAINT... they were that ruthless

[MizSterious]

Then again, one of the murdered journalists in Afghanistan had just found--and published a story about--vials of sarin in one a lab deserted by the Taliban.

[Bikers4Bush]

And I'm sure they could have obtained that much high explosives without attracting any attention at all right?

Much easier to fill them with fuel.

[motexva]

Ken Abilek says the Russians crossed smallpox with Ebola. He felt this was the deadliest bioagent anyone had discovered.

[motexva]

I think there are plenty of easier ways to spread some sort of biological toxin. Use of a cropduster as a kamikaze missile fits the facts. It seems like Atta and Co. were researching this topic around the time they were preparing the 9-11 attack. No terrorists outside the 9-11 cell have been linked with cropdusters, I think they were considering use of them as bombs at some point.

[motexva]

Or even if they crashed, say a half dozen crop dusters loaded with kerosene or gas into 6 transformer stations out in the SW. Lightly defended targets accessible from air, and you don't have to hit too many at once to bring down 3/4s to 1/2 of the nationwide grid.

You seem to see the key angle of this campaign - the high body counts are frosting on the cake, which is an assault on the US economic infrastructure, which is the main things these nuts really hate about us. Transportation systems, mail systems, power grids, computer networks - these are the likely targets of the evil ones.

[jws3sticks]

Here's you know who, practicing. Get out the SAMs.

[TiaS]

Maybe it's connected to the 20 "Suitcases" these guys are suspected to have in their possession -- by way of the Russian Mafia.

[Bikers4Bush]

Would it be asier to drop those or drive them? I thought I read somewhere that they're the size of a fridge.

I was just wondering whether it's still possible to drive across the large dams in the U.S.

That may be something we need to stop for the time being.

[Joe Boucher]

Lets look at this in a different manner, what if you weren't going to use say bacterialogical, but insted maybe gas or kerosene. crash into michigan statium on a sunday afternoon and ?? There are many ways to use an ag plane as a weapon and it doesn't have to be used only when the wind isn't blowing or too humid or too hot.