What If The Bojinka Plot Succeeded? | Alternate History

Someone posted this on Reddit and an engineer stated that had they attempted to fly a plane into a nuclear reactor the reactor would be fine which really shows you how well designed they are

I can only imagine what the Patriot Act would be like.

This legitimately would have caused another crusade. The atrocities and crimes against humanity on both sides would have scarred humanity and democracy for generations.

I think one of the most interesting things to come out after 9/11 was what Bin Laden actually thought would happen after the attacks. Apparently, he actually believed that the US would revert to isolationism and essentially give up its position in the Middle East. He was reportedly very surprised by the US’s response. Meanwhile I don’t think any Americans were surprised. Whether you agreed with it or not, the idea that the US was going to disengage was almost laughable.

If the Bojinka Plot succeeded, the entire course of history would've been very very abruptly slammed into a completely different direction

That is the problem with terrorism and using terror as a weapon, does not work. You provoke the opposite because terror turns into anger and hatred and instead of scaring the population into submission, you give them a reason to fight. It is seen in wars of the past in current wars that even when civilian targets are deliberately attacked, it only causes higher resistance and a deep hatred and desire for retribution.

I think this would essentially result in a large portion of the Western world agreeing to turn the Middleeast into glass

Honestly this sounds like it would make a kickass book.

While I think it's reasonable to assume the reaction of the Catholic world to the Pope getting assassinated would be largely over the top, the reason why the Bojinka plot failed and 9/11 worked is because the Bojinka plot was far too convoluted while 9/11 was relatively simple. Bojinka never would have worked. Perhaps the assassination of the Pope might have, but once that happened it would have been very difficult to pull off the rest with everyone on high alert. When 9/11 happened we were basically asleep. It was sudden and confusing and there was no way to react to it.

If I'm not mistaken: Nuclear Power Plants have been immune to aircraft-collisions since the mid cold war (In an effort to prevent them from being destroyed by thermonuclear-warhead *blast waves*, and by extension permanently contaminating an area with spread out nuclear fuel, when not directly targeted) . All the important structures are encased with anything from 10 to 20 feet of concrete. The US has actually run tests including using fighter aircraft sped up with rocket boosters on tracks into blocks of the same concrete and shown the impact barely even scratching the concrete.

You have to wonder at people who think that attacking a nation in this way will make them fearful instead of angry. They should know this since they were enraged by even less provocation themselves.

I’ve literally been waiting for an alternative history video about this topic since I first heard of the bojinka plot from my history teacher in middle school over a decade ago. Masterfully done, hombre.

Alternate timeline: "The Crusade on Terror"

You mean to tell me they were terrorist groups plotting an event so severe that it would kick off the 10th crusade?

It’s commonly said about 9/11 that “nobody” imagined terrorists would fly planes into buildings. Except for this thing called the Bojinka plot.

There would have needed a lot of things to go right for that plot to succeed. As anyone who has played a video game may have noticed, the more random variables you introduce, the much more difficult it is to get into a winning position. For example, hitting a nuclear plant or even the white house or the capital building with an airplane would have been incredibly difficult to pull off because they are not easily seen from the air. The big targets, landmark towers, are easier, and even then you also have the crew or passengers who would hear the news of the first plane hitting something and every subsequent plane would be wrestled away from the hijackers, or lose control and fall short of it's target. Then you also have the flight schedules, what if the planes don't take off on time? Then only the plane that got off first hits it's target, and everything else that hasn't taken off remains grounded which would have been the case for the flights originating inside the US, and anything arriving from over seas would have been told to land in Canada, and thus their plans would be foiled when they don't comply. I also feel "a distraction" would put the US on alert for possible copycat events, so most likely the people intended to be collateral damage would have not been where they would have been. So I sincerely doubt the "Designated Survivor" scenario would have played out, unless the first plane took off and crashed perfectly into the Capitol building. Likewise, with the Pentagon, even though the plane hit it, mostly resulted in the deaths of those in the impact area, with the rest of the building surviving. In most scenarios I can envision, I think the same thing would have happened on 9/11 the first two planes would have hit their targets and then all other planes wouldn't make it off the ground, or if they got airborne would face resistance to being hijacked. Or even the pilots, in communication with ATC would have been told to barricade their cockpits.

I don't think there would be an invasion of Libya. Remember, in our own timeline Gaddafi, while having been an outspoken critic of the US, did not applaud 9/11, he condemned the attack and even offered aid to the US.

I think if this plot had succeeded, it would have torn apart my country, Nigeria. You need to understand, while clashes occur between Christians and Muslims, the religions are way more intertwined than you'd expect. I, for example, have Muslim family members on both sides of my family. We celebrate Christian festivals and Muslim festivals together. Family is family and religion is religion. And this is not an uncommon thing. Indeed it's the norm in Western Nigeria (Yorùbà land) Although, to the best of my knowledge, the north is predominantly Muslim and the East predominantly Christian. Despite all the love and togetherness sometimes the cracks show. It's not rare to find Christians praying against and having a disdain for Muslims (One time a friend of mine was searching to buy a house in Lagos and he found a place. It was perfect for him and though the price was a bit much, he didn't mind. Then the sellers said they didn't want a Muslim buyer ☹️.) Nor, for that matter is it strange to see a cousin turn cold and sometimes even furious at some misuse of the Prophet's name. If the Pope were murdered by Muslims though. Families would be literally torn apart. The country as a whole might be crippled for a while

There is a book called "The War After Armageddon" by Ralph Peters and the Bojinka Plot and the book have some similarities. How the United States and the World responded in the book is how I think things would have happened if the Bojinka Plot succeeded.

the bokinka plot is the reason why were limited in how much liquid we can take on a plane. when they tested the viability of this plot, the terrorists used a homemade bomb that was assembled on a flight using wires hidden in a laptop case, a broken bulb and an aftershave bottle filled with cotton and a liquid explosive. they miscalculated where the fuel lines were on the plane by one seat which ended up killing a japanese businessman and blowing a hole in the floor of the plane. luckily the plane landed safely with no one else killed.