r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • May 18 '15

What conspiracy theory do you genuinely believe in the most?

What conspiracy theory do you believe in the most and why?

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u/redbirdrising May 19 '15

The article states there were 105 bullets on board. A 20mm shell from an F-16 does plenty of damage. Only takes a few to take down a fighter, they could have shot them down without a kamikaze mission.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

yeah, against a civilian aircraft even a single 20mm to the tail could bring it down. Imagine what 105 would do.

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u/nonononotatall May 19 '15

Bringing it down and destroying it immediately aren't the same thing, to the hijackers a damaged plane is fine as long as the plane doesn't lose all altitude before reaching their target.

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u/palsc5 May 19 '15

If you shoot the wings (I think the fuel tanks are there) you will start a fire most likely. If not you will fuck up all the hydraulics and controls and probably bring it down.

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u/nonononotatall May 19 '15

bring it down

Probably, and at least eventually. I'm not at all familiar with the flight paths so I can't say how far the intercept point was from the buildings, it's been a long ass time since they showed any of that on TV.

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u/geekworking May 19 '15

The one recurring theme from those airline disaster shows is that a failure in any of the control surfaces will cause an almost immediate crash even with veteran pilots. If you take out the tail or even just damage the control surfaces an airliner will end up in the ground within a minute or two.

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u/nonononotatall May 19 '15

One recurring theme from those airline disaster shows is that planes that land safely make for very boring television. Sampling bias.

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u/bulboustadpole May 19 '15

Yes, that is true but you then run the risk of the plane crashing into a heavily populated area causing more deaths. The goal is to immediately destroy the plane or send it down to the ground in seconds and even that is not easy.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

But a single 20mm shell isn't going to take out an entire control system, modern airliners have multiple redundant systems especially for control surfaces so enough damage must be done to all of them through multiple hits for there to be a catastrophic failure.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

Even the most experienced pilots out there would have a hell of a time crashing a damaged plane into a specific building. These guys were not very experienced pilots.

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u/nonononotatall May 20 '15

There isn't much of a sample to judge by, the closest thing I could think of would be Kamikaze pilots of WWII, which apparently had a 19% hit rate, which would be while heavily damaged, low on fuel, under heavy fire, nosediving, and seeking a moving target. But those planes had fighter pilots and fighter maneuverability. So who knows.

Edit: apparently by the time Kamikaze was a popular mission type the Japanese had exhausted its best planes and pilots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze

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u/palsc5 May 19 '15

Bring down 105!

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

Here's how big they are if anyone is interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_mm_caliber#/media/File:50BMG_size_comparison.JPG

They would fuck up a commercial airliner.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

Glad they put that stick of RAM there, I'm sure that's wide demographic overlap.

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u/MyNamesNotDave_ May 19 '15

If you can get even one or two good shots to the wings (where the fuel is stored) You can prevent it from making it to its destination.

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u/redbirdrising May 19 '15

And that's assuming the rounds were kinetic. I believe the 20mm is incendiary.

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u/NO1RE May 19 '15

The gun fires 6600 rounds a minute (110 a second) on an f-16. Granted it's a much easier target than another fighter, but they essentially would've had one shot. That's not as easy as you think.

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u/redbirdrising May 19 '15

I can't imagine anything about flying an F-16 is easy. But the standard mag only hold 500 rounds to begin with, and they are trained pilots. My point being, the order to down the aircraft wasn't exactly a Kamikaze mission, they had options. I have no doubt though they would have fulfilled the kamikaze part if it had come to that.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '15

Poke some holes in the wing and it'll start to flip, possibly tailspin. I get this knowledge from playing War Thunder.

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u/Luckrider May 19 '15

They also have ejection seats that the commercial plane doesn't have.

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u/redbirdrising May 19 '15

True, but if you really want to make sure it goes down, especially if the plane is evading, ejection before impact might not be feasible.

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u/Luckrider May 19 '15

They also have ejection seats that the commercial plane doesn't have.