[newdayrising]

I've been wondering this for a long time - what's to stop a terrorist from flying and attaching a drone with an explosive payload to a large commercial flight? Especially at night while the plane is taxiing?

[trothamel]

The NSA and other intelligence services tapping the communications between the terrorists and ensuring that they're arrested before the plan starts.

[jsjohnst]

The fact most drones have a very small lift capacity is the biggest issue.

As to how to stop it, it’s just like any other terrorist attack. SIGINT is the main tool.

[craftyguy]

Nothing, apparently. I wonder though if it would be large enough to be picked up by the radar used at most airports to track planes on the ground.

[jsjohnst]

All of the consumer grade drones (aka ones under $2,500) don’t show up on radar. They are too small and don’t have enough radar reflecting substances (think about a typical airframe, the motors and battery are the only really metallic parts of any size and they are still very very small compared to any aircraft).

[wvenable]

The weight of the payload.

[dredmorbius]

A few ounces of shaped charge at altitude would likely lead to explosive decompression.

At lower altitude, less impact, though it would still be problematic.

Keeping the charge on the target aircraft whilst it climbed to cruising height is likely the hard part.

[jsjohnst]

Many consumer grade drones can’t fly high enough to get to an altitude where “explosive decompression” would be an issue. 5k ft is pretty doable, 10k ft is unlikely, 15k+ altitude is basically not tangible currently.

[dredmorbius]

If the drone mates with the aircraft on ground (say, during taxiing), then all it has to do is hang on to some prespecified pressurisation point.