Why do terrorists attack planes?

This is something I've been thinking about for a while, and although it sounds strange maybe it is the real reason they attack planes. I understand that there are other equally valid, probably better reasons, like the amount of destruction, terror and disruption it causes.

However in ten minutes I can plan things that are simpler and cause destruction, terror and disruption. For example, they have to train the pilots, get on the planes and then kill themselves, all reasons for choosing a different way to 'do' terrorism.

So basically my point is, do the terrorists attack planes because of the amount of pollution caused by air traffic? Or is it really because we are the infidels and its the easiest way to attack a foreign country.

So basically my point is, do the terrorists attack planes because of the amount of pollution caused by air traffic?

LOL. Doubtful... I think terrorists simply like the idea of holding people hostage in the air. Makes the situation more terrifying, persuading people to meet their demands. Plus, at one time airplanes were a relatively soft target. I doubt there will be any planes involved in the next attack, unless that attack comes from a legitamate country.

For example, they have to train the pilots, get on the planes and then kill themselves, all reasons for choosing a different way to 'do' terrorism.

Why do they have to kill themselves? Why is it you see all terrorists as being Muslim?

In the post 9/11 world, I'd say it would be very difficult to pull off a Hijacking with the intent of crashing it into something. I should think most people would try to overcome the hijackers if they tried that, I know I would.

The more likely attack will probably be as was attempted in august, a bombing, or another non suicide attack like Lockerbie.

I think the reason is probably that the airliner is quite weak really with respect to strength against bombs, as a small explosion will take out a 747 whereas a 3 ton bomb is needed to damage a building. This is even including the difficulty of getting a bomb on a plane.

Why do they have to kill themselves? Why is it you see all terrorists as being Muslim?

sorry, i dont see anywhere in the inital post, that said he sees all terrorists as being muslims. i just see him asking why terrorists kill themselves...nothing about being muslims. where did you get that idea from?

two words: the economy. airlines are a huge part of the american economy, and three different airlines went into bankruptcy as a result of 9/11.....it's the same reason they chose the world trade center as their primary target.

Originally posted by shaolin_dragon

Why do they have to kill themselves? Why is it you see all terrorists as being Muslim?

sorry, i dont see anywhere in the inital post, that said he sees all terrorists as being muslims. i just see him asking why terrorists kill themselves...nothing about being muslims. where did you get that idea from?

Thanks shaolin_dragon, I was gonna mention in my initial thread that people may be confused about which type of terrorism I was talking about. I'm talking specifically about terrorists who attack with planes and I suppose from the case examples I have it would be primarily concerned with Muslim terrorists, however thats only what I've been told by the media and thats why I didn't include it at the beginning.

Maybe I'm taking "One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter" abit too seriously, but it just seems strange that they attack one of the biggest causes of pollution rather than somewhere where there'd be more people.



As a side point, I was watching a program that was showing future weapons and one of the experts said the Russians had EMP's the size of coke cans, and then he claimed that the Russians didn't really know how many they had and if many had gone missing. He claimed that one of these going off near an airport would leave planes in the sky flying blind. This is a much simpler form of terrorism, as the individual terrorist need not be found out, the can could fit in his pocket.

is it really because we are the infidels and its the easiest way to attack a foreign country

There is that.

For example, they have to train the pilots, get on the planes and then kill themselves, all reasons for choosing a different way to 'do' terrorism.

The goal of terrorists is not to kill themselves - unless they are religious extremists or just crazy. I just think he is steriotyping terrorists in general as beng Muslim, and he should not do that.

Ok I think we can understand each other a little better now. But between you and me, the media is not always the best source for information regarding such things.

Originally posted by snafu7700
two words: the economy. airlines are a huge part of the american economy, and three different airlines went into bankruptcy as a result of 9/11.....it's the same reason they chose the world trade center as their primary target.

Don't agree with you.

It's the psychological effect that counts and is the most important reason for hitting the Pentagon, WTC, and the White house. Symbols reflecting American supremacy, power, wealth, and America in its entireness.

I've always wondered why they didn't target the Liberty Statue... apparently they (whoever the terrorists were) don't hate our liberties.

Compare the 9/11 attacks to the attacks on the US embassies in Africa. 9/11 is a date everyone around the world will never forgot. The 9/11 attacks are ingrained into our minds, it happened five years ago, and up till today we see the planes hitting the WTC, people jumping out of the windows, in contrast to the attacks on the embassies to name an example.

Originally posted by byhiniur
This is something I've been thinking about for a while, and although it sounds strange maybe it is the real reason they attack planes. I understand that there are other equally valid, probably better reasons, like the amount of destruction, terror and disruption it causes.

The best reason I see is in the numbers involved.

How many targets do you have with as much people as an airplane and as fragile as an airplane?

On the FlightAware site they say at this moment:

Tracking 4,951 airborne aircraft with 31,956,600 total flights in the database. FlightAware has tracked 43,377 arrivals in the last 24 hours

Maybe there are more trains than airplanes, but the trains cannot be taken to a different destination. When the terrorists do not need to do that they attack trains, like in Madrid.

There must be more buses than trains, but a bus only takes some 30 or 40 people. When the terrorists do not want to kill a bigger number of people they have attacked buses, like in London.

Ocean liners take on board many people, but they are much less common than airplanes and much more resistant, a bomb that completely destroys an airplane only makes a small damage on a ship. But sometimes the terrorists have attacked ships, like the Achille Lauro.

So I think that it all depends on what they want to achieve with the attack.

Originally posted by ArMaP
The best reason I see is in the numbers involved.

How many targets do you have with as much people as an airplane and as fragile as an airplane?

I don't know about as fragile but as for numbers of people, there are sports events, buildings, tourist attractions, lots of different oppurtunities arise. I find it odd that all of your examples are to do with transport. Or as Mdv2 states, they could attack prominent landmarks (such as the green lady) which would make a statement of intent rather than killing innocent people.

If I was a terrorist who hated the justice system, I'd bomb courts.
If I was a terrorist who hated the countries politics, I'd bomb parliment.
If I was a terrorist who hated green house gas emissions, I'd bomb planes.

I think Mdv2 makes a good point however isn't the the psychological effect would be to scare people off planes?

Snafu's short but sweet answer is getting my vote so far, however even this offers tenuous evidence that the terrorists want us to stop flying planes as 3 airlines were reportedly shut down.

Thank you to everyone so far for there contributions.

Originally posted by byhiniur
This is something I've been thinking about for a while, and although it sounds strange maybe it is the real reason they attack planes.

--->> the terrorists attack planes because of the amount of pollution caused by air traffic?
--->> because we are the infidels and its the easiest way to attack a foreign country.

at one time only hijackers with a cause attacked airliners & took hostages

but the brain-iacs in FBI, Counter Intelligence, the Bin Laden Squad, the CIA, NSA, and all the other 2nd/3rd tier of Intelligence operations- -just never thought it conceivable that a person, let alone a small group of zealots would hijack then comandeer/fly the aircraft into high profile targets.
imho, planes were a logical extension from hijacking into terrorism instruments
, but hey, i was never recognized or had credentials as a reliable source!

...you seem to imply that planes are a focused instrument to use in terrorism...

all those African Embassies were done in by truck bombs, so was the Marine Barracks, so was OK City, so was the 1993 WTC bombing.

Terrorists(as in D.C.) also used sniper rifles,
trash can bombs in the Atlanta Olympics,
terrorists snuck in on foot at the Munich Olympics,
bombs galore in northern Ireland,
bombs in airplane baggage compartments,
bombs on Els, bombs on trains,
hostages & executions on cruise ships,
hostages taken & beheadings,
machete weilding militants for a decade in Africa,
Anthrax letters in public mailboxes...

btw, the four 9/11 planes would not have been so eventful if the twin towers didn't collapse and take ~3,000 more people than what the crashes immediately killed on impacts.

Yes good question. If the terrorists are terrorists for religious reasons, why don't they bomb religious buildings and sites of other religions than their own? After all, there might be innocent members of their own religion on the plains they bomb/hijac. For this reason I think all terrorists must be political terrorists and not religious. Or for a mysterious 'case' or other that noone knows or care about.

Originally posted by byhiniur
Why do terrorists attack planes?

Because planes are very isolated and easy to take control of. They are also very vunerable. When you put that many people in that situation, it becomes an easy target in relation to the amount of death you can cause.

Airplanes are ideal from a terrorists perspective. Remember the goal of terrorism is Fear (hence the root word in terrorism is terror). An airplane gives them a quick way to inflict massive casualities quickly:

- The Average Airliner carries over 100 people per flight
- If something happens, you can't got out while the plane is in flight
- A crash is almost a gurarintee that people will die (most people fear death).
- It's impossible to send in outside help at 30'000 feet.
- It's not hard to cause a crash

See the reasons terrorist like airplanes?

Tim

Originally posted by byhiniur

So basically my point is, do the terrorists attack planes because of the amount of pollution caused by air traffic?

If that were the case, they'd be better off attacking automotive factories, coal power stations or logging companies

The main reason is that plane attacks get the big media exposure.

Originally posted by Ghost01
- The Average Airliner carries over 100 people per flight
- If something happens, you can't got out while the plane is in flight
- A crash is almost a guarantee that people will die (most people fear death).
- It's impossible to send in outside help at 30'000 feet.
- It's not hard to cause a crash

Thats pretty much exactly it really. I can't really suggest any better reasons.

An airliner is easy enough to damage heavily, make a big enough hole and explosive decompression should do the rest of the necessary damage.

While planes still use hydraulic power that system is a pretty good target, as it will cause catastrophic damage to the airliner, and unless the pilots are really good, will cause a deadly crash.

Example:

en.wikipedia.org...

while this wasn't a bomb, sabotage of those systems should do well at destrying the plane.

Also this one

en.wikipedia.org...
if a bomb had been the trigger for this disaster, it would have been the biggest pre 9/11 airliner attack.

[edit on 7-11-2006 by apex]

So its confirmed, terrorists attacking aeroplanes aren't concerned with the environment.

I haven't replied to every post as the majority of them have made valid points that are all self standing reasons why aeroplanes are a 'worthwhile' way of bringing about the terrorists ends, and the points put together make a very strong argument as to the choice of using aeroplanes as a means to creating terror.

So, why do terrorists attack planes:

• The fragility of a plane, yet the strength of explosion/amount of death it causes when flown into a building/attacked.
  
• The ability of the terror caused by attacks on aircraft to destabilise the economy.
  
• The psychological effect it has in causing more terror than say, blowing up a bus, and the ability for the terrorist to attack targets that can make clear their aims.
  
• The numbers of people that can be affected by such an attack.
  
• In the past, the lack of security on planes that made such an attack likely to succeed.
  
• More media exposure compared to less psychologically terrofying attacks, such as the difference between 9/11 and the attack on the U.S embassy.
  

Once again, thank you to everyone for their contributions.


[edit on 7/11/06 by byhiniur]

>_____>
Terrorists attack planes because it supplies more of a psychological factor we still remember the 9-11 attacks and many americans because of it have been taking al-queda much more seriously. As other people bring up facts that's true they can go in and sneak in areas and bring bombs. IF I was a terrorist I would bring up bombs. >____>. say that this happens. If they attack a national security target: bam (target down) they would complain at that ****. It's just what they want!