Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab & Seat 19A
Why the Jockstrap Bomber picked seat 19A
Excerpt:
If the so-called Jockstrap Bomber had detonated his device, would it have brought down the airplane? Among the many unanswered questions about the plan followed by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are several involving his position in seat 19A, a window seat in the left side of the cabin. Two questions, particularly: Did he get to choose that seat and, if so, why?
If you wanted to bring down the Airbus A330 with a compact explosive device, like the one embedded in Abdulmutallab’s underpants, you would try to hit the most vulnerable part of the airplane. Al Qaeda’s technical planners have proved themselves experts in the detail of aviation operations. Their training of the 9/11 hijackers was just enough to equip them with the skills to fly an airliner precisely into targeted buildings. They would surely have studied the architecture of the Airbus to decide where a bomb would be most effective. And as an engineering student, Abdulmutallab would have been a quick study.
So, in theory at least, seat 19A would seem ideal. It is positioned exactly over the center of the wings, and under it is a tank capable of holding 41,559 liters of fuel.
Comment: Interesting
But would that tank have had any fuel in it when the plane landed? I would have to guess that that's one of the first tanks emptied in order to reduce stresses on the plane. The strength of the wing box could even ensure the plane's survival by withstanding the explosion.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for whether his burns were severe enough to earn him the world's first non-posthumous Darwin Award..... :^)