Bombing at Domodedovo

Media now reporting that the death toll is up to 31 with 130 injured. The blast was reported to happen in a busy, non-secured area of the airport.
Sad news.
 
United flies there, but their Dulles flight was scheduled to arrive about five hours prior.

Edit: Wow.
“[Eyewitness Tatyana Papova] came here about half an hour ago. I heard that there was a blast at the arrivals area. There was already a lot of smoke at the baggage claim. There were a lot of people crowded there because the escalators had stopped. The staff organized emergency exits, but the door was very narrow and people crowded there immediately. So the staff started breaking the walls to let the people out. Soon after, the airport stopped receiving arrival flights. Everyone left the passport control area and started leaving the baggage claim area. Only those who hadn't received their luggage stayed.”
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http://rt.com/news/deadly-blast-moscows-domodedovo/
 
Moscow Bombing

Hello Everyone,
Just wanted to report that my crew, off duty crew, and myself are all safe. Myself and "StoneCold" being the JC members out here.

Business terminal was unaffected but we have many friends at the main terminal. We wish the very best for everyone at Domodedovo Airport. Our flight department launched to Riga Latvia and we are awaiting word.
 
It is a mess right now. Our flight department launched out of Moscow and our prayers go out to everyone involved. All of our crews are safe thankfully!
 
Doug Taylor said:
Crap... :(
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Sadly relevant, I was just watching a recorded presentation from Bruce Schneier the other day (a well known computer security expert, and frequent TSA critic). His point was that increasing security at checkpoints was a waste of effort, and that prohibiting liquids was doing nothing to stop terrorists, since being caught with a suspicious liquid only results in it being confiscated. His position was the next attack would be at a restaurant or baggage claim area.

It's been a rough Monday - police helicopters are still circling over my house.

As Doug said, crap :(
 
fsiflyer said:
Hello Everyone,
Just wanted to report that my crew, off duty crew, and myself are all safe. Myself and "StoneCold" being the JC members out here.

Business terminal was unaffected but we have many friends at the main terminal. We wish the very best for everyone at Domodedovo Airport. Our flight department launched to Riga Latvia and we are awaiting word.
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Good to know! It's a dangerous world out there. Glad that the people we know nearer harm's way walked away. You guys be careful out there.

drunkenbeagle said:
Sadly relevant, I was just watching a recorded presentation from Bruce Schneier the other day (a well known computer security expert, and frequent TSA critic). His point was that increasing security at checkpoints was a waste of effort, and that prohibiting liquids was doing nothing to stop terrorists, since being caught with a suspicious liquid only results in it being confiscated. His position was the next attack would be at a restaurant or baggage claim area.

It's been a rough Monday - police helicopters are still circling over my house.

As Doug said, crap :(
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Aye, crap. Mr. Schneier is absolutely correct. The 9/11 hijackings made control of the aircraft important because the aircraft themselves *were* the real weapons. If a terrorist wanted to shut down a major air terminal, disrupt things, etc, all they really need is a place where a fairly large number of people gather. A ticket check in area, etc, would be all they need to shut down the airport, create mass casualties, and wreak havoc on the public sense of calm.

These sort of tactics were common in Iraq in 2005. One car bomber detonated and took out an entire crowded marketplace. It was totally unguarded and 'strategically unimportant', but still tied up assets and left a clear impression of vulnerability.
 
Thoughts and prayers :(

Apparently DVO is still running - or the domestic side is, at least, according to NPR. Something about Russian stoicism comes to mind. "Yes, there was a bombing...let us now return to business as usual."
 
Firebird2XC said:
These sort of tactics were common in Iraq in 2005. One car bomber detonated and took out an entire crowded marketplace. It was totally unguarded and 'strategically unimportant', but still tied up assets and left a clear impression of vulnerability.
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Unfortunately, it is a preview of what's to come here. The heavy hand the Kremlin has used in the Caucasus has created a steady supply of terrorists willing to strike both Aircraft and "soft targets." Russia already is a police state (I've spent enough time there, I think I'm qualified to say so), yet the terrorists seem to act with impunity. We haven't been doing a great job making friends with groups that may have been on the fence with their feelings towards us up until now, right or wrong.

We are putting almost all of our security eggs into the aviation and non proliferation baskets. On the aviation front, that offers us good protection from whack jobs, and some protection from more organized bad guys. My opinion, for what it is worth, is that every additional dollar we spend is about 100X more effective if we spend it on intelligence work. Experience has shown over the last 10 years that the TSA has stopped zero terrorists attacks, while intelligence organizations (foreign and domestic) have stopped at least several, that we know about.

The more organized bad guys are increasingly going to turn to "soft targets," the only reason being that they can. Another JC member was walking through Times Square less than a year ago with me, and had the bomber been smarter - we might not be here today. What have we learned from that? That it is easy to get a bomb into a position where it will cause great loss of life. What else have we learned? The only challenge the terrorists have is making their martyrs more competent to assemble a bomb. I don't like those odds, and sadly, I think the bad guys learned far more from that than we have.

Here's Bruce's presentation, if you are curious. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Schne
 
Has anyone youtubed "domodedovo bombing" yet.

As of know there are only 300+ views on a first hand video. Its not "too" graphic. I dont know how to post the link on my iPad.

What a tragedy!
 
The days when the so-called 'great powers' could invade weaker nations, kill their peoples and destroy their cities while expecting no consequences for themselves are most definitively over! If one reads the history of U.S. and European foreign policy over the past 100 years or so, the only thing that surprises one is that terror attacks like this don't happen more frequently.
 
gliderboy said:
The days when the so-called 'great powers' could invade weaker nations, kill their peoples and destroy their cities while expecting no consequences for themselves are most definitively over! If one reads the history of U.S. and European foreign policy over the past 100 years or so, the only thing that surprises one is that terror attacks like this don't happen more frequently.
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Terrorists aren't in a position to take over western governments, annex land, force their language and religion on foreign peoples, in that sense - they don't have a lot of power.

They can kill people senselessly. They can cause us to spend a lot of money looking for revenge. But otherwise, the impact of terrorism on western culture is pretty minimal (the idea of terrorists attacks is hardly new).
 
Re: Moscow Bombing

Absolutely disgusting, terrible news.... Everytime something like this happens, I can just imagine some idiot(s) at TSA HQ drawing up the next ridiculous security measures we'll have to endure.
 
Re: Moscow Bombing

Apophis said:
Absolutely disgusting, terrible news.... Everytime something like this happens, I can just imagine some idiot(s) at TSA HQ drawing up the next ridiculous security measures we'll have to endure.
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It is terrible, however there's really nothing you can do. Unless we have guarded\armed checkpoints everywhere we go, there's nothing to stop someone from carrying this out. While an old lady has to go through a backscatter or pat down, the suicide bomber is in an unsecure area killing innocent people. It's a scary thought but I don't see how they could ever stop things like this from happening.
 
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