Local Aviation Expert: Terrorism A Possibility

CBS KYW ^ | 02/01/03 | NA

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

Local Aviation Expert: Terrorism A Possibility

CBS

Print This Story Feb 1, 2003 10:58 pm US/Eastern (KYW) (PHILADELPHIA) While leading theories are emerging about what exactly happened to Space Shuttle Columbia on Saturday, Eyewitness News spoke with nationally-renowned aviation expert Arthur Wolk about what may have caused the disaster. While Wolk says technical or structural problems are at the top of his list, he won't rule out terrorism.

"Well, perhaps the leading theory is that a very large piece of insulation came off that orange fuel tank and struck the left wing. Of course no one would know how much damage it did. But if there were damage to any of the critical tiles, there are some more critical than others, when the shuttle reached this high-pressure point in its high speed descent, it could tear some of those critical tiles off and then the whole shuttle would be torn apart," Wolk explained. Wolk also said that other possibilities include structural failure, a computer failure or multiple computer failures that would have caused the shuttle to make a movement that structurally it couldn't take. While U.S. officials have said terrorism doesn't seem to play a role, Wolk said he wasn't so sure: "Then of course finally there is always the possibility that some terrorist on the inside, during one of the inspections of the shuttle, may have sabotaged it. To me, it's simply too coincidental that the shuttle was lost when an Israeli astronaut was aboard. It's very sad indeed."

Finally, Wolk thinks investigators will also focus on the fact that Columbia was not only the heaviest of the shuttles, but also the oldest in NASA's fleet. "It's certainly a possibility. Remember that aging aircraft, just like aging space shuttles, present specific and unique problems."

(MMIII, Viacom Internet Services Inc. , All Rights Reserved)

[right way right]

I will eat my keyboard if this is proved to be some conspiracy by another country and or act of terrorism.

[mostlyundecided]

I found this article that said there were other problems on this flight. Three to be exact, here is an exerpt from this article stating problems in the "cargo bay" (or hold?):

Engelauf said the shuttle and its systems were working well, with only a trio of problems reported. "I would call this an exceptionally clean orbiter so far," he said. One of two heaters in a cryogenic storage tank within the cargo bay wasn't working, and neither was part of an intercom system between the crew cabin and the SpaceHab module. The only trouble of any consequence is with a system that processes data downlinked from the SpaceHab module. Although the communication link with the shuttle's Ku-band system is working well, the experiment data is not being captured on the ground. Engelauf said that until the problem is solved, some experiment data will have to be recorded in the shuttle and played back later. In the meantime, Columbia remains in a stable orbit with plans to land back in Florida on Feb. 1.

[Texasforever]

I will eat my keyboard if this is proved to be some conspiracy by another country and or act of terrorism.

I think your keyboard is safe.

[mostlyundecided]

You're right, we can take away conspiracy/terrorism, but what about an experiment/equipment malfunction? Early indications were internal, not external, as you can see from my earlier post. How about just plain bad luck, which seems to be coming in the bucketful on this one.

[Texasforever]

but what about an experiment/equipment malfunction?

I have no idea and even less specific expertise to make an educated guess. It was obvious from video of the launch that something came off at the port side intersection of the wing and fuselage. Using Occam's Razor that appears to be at least a contributing factor.

[CWOJackson]

They always seem to be able to find these "experts" from somewhere.

[Axenolith]

Hoagland will be milking this like a cow...

[The Great Satan]

How about just plain bad luck

Yeah, that's the ticket!

[Captainpaintball]

Is it impossible to imagine a sleeper agent within the vast beauracracy that is NASA?

Nope! and I also imagine that there muuuuust be an other country with designs on space, specifically the moon and Mars.

[AnalogReigns]

One thing to remember is according to what I heard, according to NASA's super-accurate clocks, they lost communication at precisely 0800:00 CST.

It would be a strange coincidence (not that it isn't) indeed for an accident to be so timely. Terrorism should not be ruled out.

[xm177e2]

That's incredibly doubtful.

Remember, if pieces are landing there, the shuttle blew up a long distance away.

[Alberta's Child]

Good point, but remember that the actual problems that led up to the loss of contact began at 7:53 AM CST.

[txhurl]

Terrorism never occurred to me until I spent an hour googling it: NASA gets hacked every week (including design document theft). Who knows, anymore.

[Fred Mertz]

TGS, you forgot to flag me.

[ganesha]

Probably, we just just got unlucky, and Saddam got lucky. (He does have a way of getting lucky, over and over, doesn't he?)

This is a poem which was read on Iraqi television, by a tribal chieftain, after Osama Bin Laden was named man of the year:

From inside America how four planes flew.
Such a mishap never happened in the past
And nothing similar will happen.
Six thousand infidels died.
Bin Laden did not do it; the luck of President Saddam did it.

[MadJack]

I thought they used Sterling SMGS.

[Bobby777]

Local Aviation Expert: Terrorism A Possibility

more likely, as some have said, damaged tiles on ascent, which allow heat to burn through, destroying sensors along the way, until a catastrophic break in the airframe or aerodynamics altering pitch / yaw to unaccetable levels ...

when I saw "Palestine, Texas" on the news I thought, hoo-boy, out comes the tin-foil ...

in the end I'll bet an EVA would have shown potential problems ... they are saying they can't go EVA under the belly of the orbiter (length of tethers / life support?) ... this sure would have seemed prudent giving what was noticed on lift off ... those tiles are very fragile to impact ...

[ThinkingMan]

No terrorist group has claimed any type of responsibility. With the WTC the attacks were obvious enought that those claims were not needed. If this had been an attack, it would be to subtle enough that claims of responsibility would be needed to make it effective. The point of terrorism is to make people feel unsafe. A shuttle accident, while tragic, does not make me feel unsafe. A terrorist attack on the shuttle, however, with all of it's security, would show the ability to strike anything, anywhere, anytime. That would definitely make me feel unsafe.

[Dajjal]

I think that a terrorist sabotaging inside the wing to break off critical tiles is the most likely explanation.

Shuttle trips may be blase' news in the States, but this one was daily front-page material in Israel. And a pilot who had bombed Iraq to boot!

You can be sure that the Islamicists certainly would have made every effort to sabotage this particular shuttle flight, even if you think the actual cause was random structural weakness due to age.

This would be too big a coup to pass up. They must have at least tried.

By the same token, it is important that the US Govt. appear as impervious to attack as possible, and to "rule out" terrorism from the start.

And non-claiming-of-responsibility is not an argument. No terrorist group has ever issued a formal statement claiming success for 9/11. All we have is one al-Qaeda leader making a comment in an interview where he seems to say that they did it, months after the fact.

Lots of terrorist acts are never "claimed." (Particularly here it should not be expected, if they have someone who is still working for NASA!)

[Dajjal]

I suspect that the terrorists' actually intended that the wing be so damaged that the shuttle would overheat on the launch. But the bomb turned out to be too small to cause that to happen. However, the damage was big enough to destroy it upon its return.