this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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[–] What_Religion_R_They@hexbear.net 24 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I haven't looked at any of the videos from this terrorist attack, but can someone tell me how large the explosion radius was, approximately? It's like 20 grams of explosive from what I recall.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 29 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

If you held the pager in your hand you'd lose the hand and burn your body.

If you had it on your waist your pelvis is getting blown out.

Small but powerful explosion. Think of it like holding a powerful firework vs that firework going off 1 meter from you. You'll be fine (but stunned and bruised) by the nearby explosion vs you will be seriously harmed if it's touching you. That's the difference. People wearing these things were put in critical condition in the hospital or outright killed, others were luckier.

On a flight you could use it to break into the cockpit. It would easily blow the lock on a door if you taped it to the door. Or you could blow the door or window of the plane and crash it. With more than one you could take over a plane, I'm not convinced that passengers these days would sit nicely for anyone doing so though after the use of planes as suicide attacks. People would choose to fight.

[–] theturtlemoves@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Or you could blow the door or window of the plane and crash it.

Would it be enough to actually compromise the hull? The hull would be built to withstand random birds colliding (and at the speed a plane flies, a bird would hit it with the force of a bullet or so), so I'm guessing it should be fairly strong. Also, a hole in the hull shouldn't cause a crash - the 'door fell off' Boeing still managed to land safely. (Whoever is near the explosion is going to get badly injured / killed though.)

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I think it's enough to remove a leg so yeah I think it could blow a hole in the hull too.

Also, a hole in the hull shouldn't cause a crash

Huh I thought it would be more likely to if an explosive depressurisation occurred but apparently not. It would be a means of taking over the plane and pacifying the passengers though, since once pressurisation has been lost the passengers will require oxygen masks in order to remain conscious as long as the plane stays at high altitude. This would force passengers to stay seated, they'd only be able to attempt to regain control of the plane once the altitude has been reduced which presumably would only occur when you're near your destination.

So yeah with like 2 of these devices I think you could take over a plane. One for cockpit entry because they lock the cockpits these days, and another for depressurising the plane and terrorising the passengers.

[–] Zuzak@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wouldn't that also require the hijackers to stay seated and keep oxygen masks on?

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes but they'll have that in the pilot seats.

  1. Blow cockpit

  2. Take cockpit

  3. Depressurise plane for crowd control

This could all happen very fast in the space of 1-2minutes and the people in the plane aren't going to make the decision to intervene until they know what's going on. None of this seems particularly difficult, the hardest part of the entire thing is procuring the explosives and hiding it within the devices but someone motivated enough would figure it out.

[–] lemmyseizethemeans@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 1 month ago

Any explosion no matter how small can impact a flight,

[–] sgtlion@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago

Radius is hard to say, they were like a tenth of a frag grenade (complete with the frag of batteries and pager bits.) Enough to blow a hole in a plane for sure.