this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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[–] lemmyseizethemeans@lemmygrad.ml 49 points 15 hours ago

Yep. People have not internalized the new reality yet. Still in a weird state of denialism and shock but the blowback of Israeli terrorism is going to be massive

[–] What_Religion_R_They@hexbear.net 23 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

I haven't looked at any of the videos from this terrorist attack, but can someone tell me how large the explosion radius was, approximately? It's like 20 grams of explosive from what I recall.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 27 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

If you held the pager in your hand you'd lose the hand and burn your body.

If you had it on your waist your pelvis is getting blown out.

Small but powerful explosion. Think of it like holding a powerful firework vs that firework going off 1 meter from you. You'll be fine (but stunned and bruised) by the nearby explosion vs you will be seriously harmed if it's touching you. That's the difference. People wearing these things were put in critical condition in the hospital or outright killed, others were luckier.

On a flight you could use it to break into the cockpit. It would easily blow the lock on a door if you taped it to the door. Or you could blow the door or window of the plane and crash it. With more than one you could take over a plane, I'm not convinced that passengers these days would sit nicely for anyone doing so though after the use of planes as suicide attacks. People would choose to fight.

[–] theturtlemoves@hexbear.net 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Or you could blow the door or window of the plane and crash it.

Would it be enough to actually compromise the hull? The hull would be built to withstand random birds colliding (and at the speed a plane flies, a bird would hit it with the force of a bullet or so), so I'm guessing it should be fairly strong. Also, a hole in the hull shouldn't cause a crash - the 'door fell off' Boeing still managed to land safely. (Whoever is near the explosion is going to get badly injured / killed though.)

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

I think it's enough to remove a leg so yeah I think it could blow a hole in the hull too.

Also, a hole in the hull shouldn't cause a crash

Huh I thought it would be more likely to if an explosive depressurisation occurred but apparently not. It would be a means of taking over the plane and pacifying the passengers though, since once pressurisation has been lost the passengers will require oxygen masks in order to remain conscious as long as the plane stays at high altitude. This would force passengers to stay seated, they'd only be able to attempt to regain control of the plane once the altitude has been reduced which presumably would only occur when you're near your destination.

So yeah with like 2 of these devices I think you could take over a plane. One for cockpit entry because they lock the cockpits these days, and another for depressurising the plane and terrorising the passengers.

[–] Zuzak@hexbear.net 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Wouldn't that also require the hijackers to stay seated and keep oxygen masks on?

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Yes but they'll have that in the pilot seats.

  1. Blow cockpit

  2. Take cockpit

  3. Depressurise plane for crowd control

This could all happen very fast in the space of 1-2minutes and the people in the plane aren't going to make the decision to intervene until they know what's going on. None of this seems particularly difficult, the hardest part of the entire thing is procuring the explosives and hiding it within the devices but someone motivated enough would figure it out.

[–] lemmyseizethemeans@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 13 hours ago

Any explosion no matter how small can impact a flight,

[–] sgtlion@hexbear.net 13 points 13 hours ago

Radius is hard to say, they were like a tenth of a frag grenade (complete with the frag of batteries and pager bits.) Enough to blow a hole in a plane for sure.

[–] ZQKNS@thelemmy.club 32 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (4 children)

This is a very serious issue. The TSA needs to start auditing everything that gets onto an airplane. They should designate secure areas in airports where everything and everyone that enters must undergo inspection beforehand. They should set up some kind of checkpoint for this purpose. It would be a good idea to have personnel verify the identity of individuals before they are allowed into the inspection area. Perhaps they could then have persons remove their personal belongings, including their potentially explosive pagers, and set them aside for separate inspection. They could even make them remove their shoes and belts for added safety. This might sound like a crazy idea right now but I think with sufficient research they might be able to build a machine that can detect metal, and require people to pass through this machine before being allowed through. They could have personnel stationed on the other end to conduct secondary inspections of passengers if needed. As for baggage and other personal belongings, they may be able to leverage a technology used in the medical industry, the X-ray machine, to see the inside of bags and electronic devices to detect concealed explosives or other prohibited items.

The current situation where they just let you walk straight in from outside right onto to the plane is unacceptable. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

[–] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 9 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

~~I honestly thought this was a joke.~~

It was a joke. I was barely waking up.

[–] Barx@hexbear.net 71 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

The TSA is security theater. They fail security audits to an absurd degree. It is only there to ensure consumer confidence in buying air travel and nothing more.

[–] keepcarrot@hexbear.net 34 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I wonder about these sorts of things on stuff as minor as local public transport, and I feel like the security guards are not earning their money back (so to speak).

(also, public transport should entirely be paid with land taxes)

[–] Dolores@hexbear.net 4 points 7 hours ago

also, public transport should entirely be paid with land taxes

illuminati bus georgists bus georgists illuminati

[–] Barx@hexbear.net 34 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Public transit security is mostly a waste, it is mostly about "deterring" fare evasion, which is a very minor cost compared to the cost of training and employing entire humans to check for fare evasion.

The money would be better spent on addressing root causes of fair evasion. Out all of it into funding free transit fairs and it would be auch better use of municipal funds.

[–] keepcarrot@hexbear.net 19 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

We had a month of free transit here and everyone said the results were very positive (its already mostly paid for by taxes anyway), so... idk, I'm guessing neolib Labor will ignore it and carry on. We have free transit on Sundays now

[–] Barx@hexbear.net 3 points 5 hours ago

Free transit is such a win-win for everyone except the car industry. It's an amazing lesson in capital's control, really.

[–] Hexboare@hexbear.net 27 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Very funny but I doubt the pager explosive would be particularly detectable.

[–] krolden@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 hours ago

A amall explosion in a pressurized tube could definitely be destructible.

[–] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 13 points 14 hours ago

tl;dr anyone got the movie rights to this novel?

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 46 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (2 children)

Lithium batteries are basically all firebombs.

[–] sgtlion@hexbear.net 22 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

True, but they're also rigged in about five different ways to specifically not explode. And then about five more ways to breach and off-gas instead of blowing up.

You'd have to make major adjustments to actually have one violently explode. To the point where you're just making a pipe bomb.

[–] theturtlemoves@hexbear.net 12 points 10 hours ago

You'd have to make major adjustments to actually have one violently explode.

That, or buy a Samsung smartphone.

[–] bortsampson@hexbear.net 39 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Great, now I'll have to buy an overpriced water bottle and pager after checkin.

[–] krolden@lemmy.ml 9 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

FYI I didn't realize I could just bring an empty water bottle through security until like three times I flew recently.

[–] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 24 points 15 hours ago

There's a really funny bit idea someone could do with this.