Missed It By That Much

It looks like the law enforcement folks in the UK, US and Pakistan jumped in and broke up the terror cell just in time:

The terrorist attack foiled by British authorities on Thursday was aimed at blowing up as many as 10 airplanes on trans-Atlantic flights, and plotters hoped to stage a dry run within two days, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

The actual attack would have followed within days.

One official said the suicide attackers planned to use a peroxide- based solution that could ignite when sparked by a camera flash or another electronic device.

The test run was designed to see whether the plotters would be able to smuggle the needed materials aboard the planes, these officials said. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

And how about this:

Among those arrested were a Muslim charity worker and a Heathrow Airport employee with an all-area access pass, according to Britain's Channel 4.

This incident really changes the rules as to how an attack on an airliner might occur. The 9/11 attacks required four or five thugs per plane to overpower the crew and control the passengers. With this new approach, one terrorist with a couple of small, easily concealed items could have quickly turned a Boeing into a brick, with the aerodynamic properties of same. It wouldn't take a very big bang in a pressurized cabin, especially if done near the tail, to take down an airliner.

My guess is the bad guys were planning to explode the airliners over the water where evidence would be very difficult if not impossible to obtain. They could easily coordinate times so that all affected aircraft were over the ocean at the same time.

I've also heard it said that they might have wanted to blow them up over cities to maximize the loss of life, but I tend to disagree due to difficulty of timing such an attack involving as many as 10 planes. I'm sure we'll find out more later.

Had they been successful, all air activity over the US (and probably other areas) and would have been down for days, and the airline industry might well have suffered a fatal blow. The economy would have been hammered as well with the loss of business and travel. We dodged a big bullet this time.