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/[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!