Explosie Kerstvlucht niet krachtig genoeg vlgs proef in vliegtuig

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Boeing 747 survives simulated 'Flight 253' bomb blast

Boeing 747 survives simulated 'Flight 253' bomb blast
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8547329.stm
A test explosion on a Boeing 747 has shown that a US Christmas Day
flight would have landed safely even if a bomb on board was detonated
successfully.

The plane's fuselage did not break in the controlled blast, which used
the same explosives that were on Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.

However experts said it showed the suspected bomber and the passenger
next to him would have been killed.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, has denied attempting to murder 289 people.

The controlled experiment was carried out for the BBC Two documentary
How safe are our Skies? Detroit Flight 253.

It would have been quite horrific - obviously the blast itself would
cause eardrum rupture

Dr John Wyatt, an international terrorism and explosives adviser to the
UN, replicated the conditions on board the Detroit flight on a
decommissioned Boeing 747 at an aircraft graveyard in Gloucestershire,
England.

The same amount of the explosive pentaerythritol (or PETN) allegedly
carried by Mr Abdulmutallab was placed to mirror the location where he
was sitting on the plane.

Captain J Joseph, an air accident investigator, and Dr Wyatt both
concluded that the quantity of explosive used was nowhere near enough
needed to rupture the skin of a passenger plane.

Dr Wyatt said: "If it was a more rigid material then we might have seen
a crack or breakthrough but this is actually quite a flexible material.

"I was extremely impressed by the aircraft structure.

"It can sustain quite a hefty thump."

Captain Joseph said: "We noticed the aircraft had lost some rivets but
no flight controls were compromised and certainly no fuel tanks were
breached.

"I'm very confident that the flight crew could have taken this aeroplane
without any incident at all and get it on the ground safely."

Body parts

However, the experts said that the death of the suspected bomber and the
passenger sitting next to him would have been traumatic for passengers.
	
Captain J Joseph

After seeing... how well the aircraft maintained its structural
integrity, and obviously the pilot's capacity to fly the aircraft, it
should give them (passengers) a great deal of confidence
Captain J Joseph, air accident investigator

"It would have been quite horrific. Obviously the blast itself would
cause eardrum rupture," said Dr Wyatt.

Captain Joseph said the noise and the smoke would have been awful, "not
to mention the parts of the bodies that were disintegrated as part of
the explosion".

But Captain Joseph said the experiment could help to put air travellers
at ease: "I think this should be a confidence-builder for passengers.

"After seeing... how well the aircraft maintained its structural
integrity, and obviously the pilot's capacity to fly the aircraft, it
should give them a great deal of confidence."

For security reasons, they could not go into specific details of blast
damage inside the cabin of the test Boeing 747.

Kip Hawley, the former head of the US Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) said: "We can be sure that al Qaeda and others have
taken lessons from their failed attempt and this program allows the
public to be privy to some of those lessons.

"An active and engaged public can not only be a layer of security but
can be more effective in demanding the kind of security that will work.

"The explosives analysis done by Dr John Wyatt gave a realistic picture
of the effects of a carry-on bomb roughly similar to the one used on
Christmas Day.
	
FLIGHT 253
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, is accused of trying to blow up
the plane with a device hidden in his underwear
Officials say he planned to detonate it using a syringe filled with
chemicals
Instead he caused a fire and was overpowered by passengers
He faces life imprisonment if convicted
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula says it was responsible for the failed
attack

"The point that today's airframes are more resilient than many imagine
is a critical point.

"Governments do very sophisticated testing similar to what Dr Wyatt
demonstrated and those results inform security measures you see in
airports today.

"Specifically, it was that kind of testing that led to the decision to
allow 100ml of any liquid, carried in a sealed one-quart baggie, to be
brought through security."

Dr Wyatt's test results are to be shared with governments and aviation
security experts around the world.

How safe are our Skies? Detroit Flight 253 was broadcast on BBC Two on
Thursday 4 March, at 2100 GMT. Watch it again on BBC iplayer.

Some readers have questioned the validity of the experiment given that
the plane was tested on the ground. The programme-makers gave this response:

At the time of the attempted detonation, Flight 253 was descending
rapidly and its altitude has been estimated to be around 10,000ft.

At that height the difference in pressure inside and outside the plane
would not have been great enough significantly to affect the explosion.

So the explosion team ruled that the decommissioned plane's lack of
doors was not a factor in the test.

With this quantity of explosive, the peak pressure and impulse are over
quickly and decay rapidly over distance. The doors were sufficiently far
away that the overpressure would have dissipated before it reached them.

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********