On Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:37:09 -0500, I am Tosk wrote:


I don't know which part you are calling wrong. From what I saw, the
video showed a drop dissipating a watermelon. From what I saw, the
amount of material this guy had was about the size of a small tube of
toothpaste. Hundreds of thousands of "drops", in that area. Why would
you not think the force would blow the aircraft in half right there at
that point over the wing? Seems to me it would. There was also a
demonstration at one point of the amount of explosive in the shoe
bombers shoe and it blew the plane to pieces.

PETN is a very powerful explosive, but in the amount used, it is very
unlikely that it could blow an airplane in half by itself. It's my
understanding Abdulmutallab had @ 80 grams of the stuff. You are right,
that is about the size of a *small* tube of toothpaste.

From my reading, if the PETN had detonated properly, a somewhat difficult
matter in itself, and it was held against the plane's fuselage, as it
was, it would most likely have blown a small hole in the plane. At
altitude, with the resulting decompression, it is quite likely it could
have brought the plane down. At the lower altitude, where he attempted
to detonate the charge, it is quite likely the plane would have made a
successful landing.

Either way, I would not want to be on the plane, and it was clearly and
attempt to kill several hundred people.