JANET shot down by McVeigh

Hello all,


Now for something completely different...

This is a weird one (I'm in a whimsical mood). A little OTL
background: The US Government maintains a top secret base on the
Nevada Test Site near Groom Lake. This base - not on any map - is near
the tiny town of Rachel, Nevada. While not officially existing, it has
been given US pop-culture name - Area 51 (it is located in grid 51 of
the Nevada Test Site).

This base is a skunk works for developing and testing out highly
advanced military planes for the US government - frex the Stealth
fighter was developed there, and, earlier, the U-2 of Gary Powers fame
during the Cold War.

However, many people believe other things happen there. A whole
sub-culture has built up in the US that claims the base's extraordinary
security (they post signs all over the place informing you that
entering the base can be punished by having you shot) and secrecy is to
hide a much deeper secret than testing new planes - that in fact the US
government has extraterrestrial artifacts (and/or actual aliens) and is
doing top secret work there.

This has been a persistant myth for decades - and the State of
Nevada has actually cashed in on it. State road 375 to Rachel has
acually been renamed the "Extraterrestrial Highway" (no joke - look it
up in a road atlas for Nevada). Rachel itself is dotted with hotels
and inns ("The Little Ale'inn) catering to people who come (in their
RVs) to observe the secret doings of the US government and the aliens.

Now - getting the WI here - every day, the USAF ships in people to
work at this base. Since it is so remote and inhospitable (it's
located about 90 miles north of Las Vegas), hardly anyone lives there.
Rather, the scientists and engineers live in Las Vegas. Every morning,
they go to McCarren airport, and board a special 737 jetliner - "JANET" (i.e. Just Another Non-Existant Terminal) - that flies them to Area 51, and then back again at night. Every day. No, I'm not kidding.
Over and over. Your tax dollars at work.
The UFO nuts are mostly harmless, and I think the main attitude of
the people at Area 51 is amusement; I don't think they could keep
aliens a secret, and I don't think they mind the mystique that is
associated with them. However, some of these UFO people are crazy.
They see dark conspiracies where the US government is collaborating
with the aliens to bring us all under control (as if a species that
could manage cross light-years would need assistance in crushing us -
Harry Turtledove notwithstanding).


So, here's the WI. June 1994. A couple of these nuts (say Tim McVeigh and his pal) are ex-military, and they acquire and surplus Stinger shoulder-fired SAM. They park outside McCarren, and, when JANET appears one morning, theyfire. Against all expectations, the missile impacts JANET, destroying it. There are no survivors from the plane.
Now what? Assuming these two bozos get caught (probable) what
happens? My guess is thehe UFO subculture in America (with crop
circles, abductions, and Area 51) is suddenly under a lot more
scruntiny as potential domestic terrorists. Additionally, how does
Hollywood (which regularly cashes in on alien movies) react? What
about other conspiracy nuts?

Mike Turcotte
 

TelClaven

Banned
Oooh. Interesting.

Well, I imagine the first thing to do would be cover up the fact that there ever was an airliner. Then Timothy and co. would have to be disappeared. Oklahoma City doesn't end up a by-word for home-grown extremism.
 
I don't think the government could deny it. This is a couple of hundred dead people, plus plane wreckage scattered all over the famous Las Vegas strip.

I think they'd admit that the passengers were 'civilian employees of the US Air Force' or somesuch, without admitting to Area 51, although the press would take Area 51 and run with it.

Mike Turcotte
 
I don't think the government could deny it. This is a couple of hundred dead people, plus plane wreckage scattered all over the famous Las Vegas strip.

I think they'd admit that the passengers were 'civilian employees of the US Air Force' or somesuch, without admitting to Area 51, although the press would take Area 51 and run with it.

Given the pervasive paranoia of the 90s, I could see McVeigh becoming a martyr figure in pop culture. Evidently, the victims knew too much and the government picked a harmless nut to take the blame. Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan, Mumia Abu Jamal, Tim McVeigh - illustrious company.
 
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