Aviation Update

AQ's propaganda rag is out with a new edition to taunt us dumb infidel westerners wherein they dropped this claim, again:

The magazine also repeats a controversial claim of responsibility for the September 3 crash of a UPS flight in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which killed the two crew members.

Well, the internet doesn't contain a final report stating a probable cause on the event because it's being controlled by the noted UAE aviation investigation board, whom nobody but those in the UAE had heard of before this event. So we search for more.

Here's how ABC described the same thing:

AQAP also took credit for the September crash of a UPS cargo flight in Dubai. However, U.S. and U.A.E. officials have concluded that the crash was not an act of terrorism.

Sounds pretty final. But wait, the CNN story said this:

No evidence has surfaced of an explosion aboard the UPS cargo plane that crashed in September, officials in the United Arab Emirates have said. But authorities there have also said they are seriously looking into AQAP's claim.

Not final, as in still looking and haven't ruled out all incendiaries. MSNBC explained a bit more:

But U.S. officials insist the Dubai crash was an accident caused by a battery fire, not terrorism.

Yes, a fire where batteries burned, but how did the fire start? Is there a final report? Looking around some more here's CBS video that doesn't mention Dubai at all, and the LA Times buried an AP story that mentioned the battery fire. Nothing so far from the NY Times or WaPo as of post time. So there you go, the reader is left to his own conclusions.

Since "Inspire" is propaganda it's likely an opportunistic claim since they didn't seem to go into the surprising detail they did with the toner bombs. They also waited a long while before taking credit, which is also suspect. So it's probably bogus. More troubling perhaps is the ability for immediate taunting this format provides.

For instance, not only did they claim the operation was cheap, and not only did they exploit the current brouhaha (and millions spent in the west) over draconian security efforts, but they even claimed to have paid "shipping" on the printers for an extra added touch. And by using 4200 dollars and a printer price of 300 they indicated more are in the pipeline. Wonder how long before cruise missiles are flying over the Arabian Peninsula?