Saturday, March 06, 2010

BBC on Christmas Day Underpants Bomber: Plane Probably Would Have Survived Explosion

[MARCH 10--Correction. Duh, of course: The plane in the Christmas Day incident was an A330, not a 747.]

The subsequent TSA hysteria aside, the Christmas Day underpants bomber likely would have failed to bring down that 747 approaching Detroit even if his bomb had successfully exploded, the BBC found in an explosives test conducted for a TV documentary.

In the test, which replicated the incident on Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, the controlled blast did not rupture the plane's fuselage. The casualties probably would have been limited to the bomber and the passenger next to him, the BBC said.

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5 comments:

Unknown said...

And by "that 747" I assume you mean "that A330", since the aircraft in question was, in fact, an A330.

Anonymous said...

Just a fyi, that was an A330 involved on the Xmas day incident, not a 747.

Jerry said...

Wasn't the plane an Airbus 330-323E, rather that the 747 you mention?

Anonymous said...

Why was this test performed on a B-747?
NW253 was a A330-300 on December 25, 2009.

Anonymous said...

It wasn't a 747..