idea [IDEA] OOC: Voltan Airways Flight 444

[Kolhar]

It was a bright and sunny day. With perfect visibility and calm winds, you couldn't possibly have a better day for a flight. And yet, for the crew and passengers of Voltan Airways Flight 444, something went wrong. Could it be a mechanical failure? Or, perhaps, something much more nefarious...

Or at least, that's how the opening sequence would go if this was an episode of Air Crash Investigations (Mayday, if you're American).

THE IDEA

So, there's a cult in Volta that was formed after the government began relaxing the suppression of religion. This cult would be a cult of the well educated, targeting new university graduates, in particular those who under the old communist system could have expected a cushy government-assigned job and while they certainly could still go for one, with the emergence of non-government worker co-ops there'd actually be a non-government job market. Not everyone might be able to compete in this new job market, so the less fortunate talent would be targeted by the cult for recruitment. This would give them a huge amount of scientific expertise, and once you consider the rest of their beliefs make them dangerous... very very dangerous.

To be blunt, they are a doomsday cult. But they don't think the apocalypse is a bad thing. Rather, they see it as an opportunity... for them and their followers.

They believe that Volta will be invaded by a foreign power, and in the process of defending itself be completely destroyed. Like, think Germany and Japan after WW2 levels of destroyed. And, from the ruins of that, they believe they'd be able to get enough followers for them to gain power in Volta and establish a theocratic state, thereby "saving" the Voltan people. So, they'd want to trigger this apocalyptic war, and would be gathering materials to do it. Obviously, traditional guns and explosives would be a bit out of reach for them, so they'd need to find other weapons. And with their knowledge, they would not shy away from chemical warfare.

THE ATTACK

Voltan Airways Flight 444 would be flying from [cityName] (should be a city in a foreign country with friendly relations to Volta) to Vien. Unbeknownst to the crew, there are 4 or 5 members of this cult on the plane. Each one of them snuck on with liquid sarin. This sarin would be hidden in containers of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, cologne, perfume, and other toiletries that fall under the 3.4 oz (100 ml) limit. This would get past airport security as airport security screening doesn't check the contents of these containers. Trust me, I've traveled by plane many times to a variety of countries and I've never seen the contents of those 100ml liquids be checked, not even once. If such checks to occur, it must be extremely rare.

The flight would have to fly above the airspace of [countryName] (should be a country hostile to Volta but where it makes sense to have to travel above their airspace). Shortly before entering the airspace, these people would start intentionally spilling and dispersing the liquid sarin. Since sarin is the most volatile of nerve agents it will quickly evaporate into the air. What's more is that it will quickly be dispersed throughout the cabin by the planes internal pressurization systems. When a pilot goes back to check on what's going on in the cabin, they'd let the gas into the cockpit.

After declaring a PANPAN, and later quickly upgrading it to a MAYDAY, the aircraft would become unresponsive to all radio communications. It also would not react at all to anything, simply flying in a straight line as the autopilot maintains it's course towards [countryName]. Nothing would get any sort of response, it wouldn't even rock it's wings when intercepted by fighter jets. Depending on how much of a threat [countryName] perceives this to be, the aircraft could even be presumed to have been hijacked and shot down before any terrorist attack can happen. This is the harshest of measure, and has never happened in real life, but it is a measure that all countries (rl anyway, I assume it's the same ic) reserve the right to do in such an extremely unusual situation.

This is exactly what the cult wants. They want the plane to be shot down, and then for Volta to be blamed for harboring terrorists. They want this to ruin Volta diplomatically. In fact, they want  it to cause a war, since they believe it will be their holy apocalypse that will bring them salvation.

THE RP

The RP would happen in 2 part. The first part is the flight, where I would RP with whoever is in control of the other countries airspace until either the plane is shot down by fighters or runs out of fuel and crashes. The second part is the actual investigation, where I would RP the Voltan Committee for Aviation Safety (which would want to investigate because, well, it's a Voltan plane run by a Voltan airline with a Voltan crew), and other people would investigate their own aviation safety authorities (think NTSB in America or AAIB in the UK). Once the cause is determined, it would turn into a criminal investigation and hunt for members of the cult. At this point I'd also RP the cult as it tries to hide its involvement and escalate things into a full scale war against Volta through various disinformation campaigns.

 

So, that's the gist of my idea. It was partly inspired by Aum Shinrikyo's Tokyo subway attack, and partly by Helios Airways Flight 522. Who's interested? If anyone's interested, any ideas as to which countries could be involved in this? And finally, does anyone else here have any questions?

Edited July 25, 2021 by Volta (see edit history)

[Orioni]

Hello @Volta. My country is probably too far to be involved in this story. I've measured nearly 16,000 km (9,900 mi) from Zuidhaven to Vien.

Looking around the map, there are some possible alternatives. However, we'd need to know more about the countries with which you have good and bad relations.

• North: over @San Castellino to @Mauridiviah.
• Northeast: over @Metztlitlaca's NPC to @Kahnikstan, @Kertosono, @Fulgistanor beyond.
• East: over Metztli's NCP to @Yeosanor @Rhava.
• East: over @Oyusto @Gallambriaor beyond.
• South: over @Rhodelliato @Kirvina.

[Fubukino]

Oyussa wouldn't be hostile to Volta at all so I wouldn't see that happening unless there is a negative perception of Oyussa. Whether it is cultural for aiding and abetting Dolch aristocracy establishing a penal colony and neglecting to do something about it or for the fact Oyussa is a wealthy tax dodging haven. I would offer Fearannteth if it weren't annexed and essentially defunct the moment Anglia took it, unless this were done in the past. They would have had cause to loathe Volta purely on the basis of its ideology. However, Sefesia (soon to be something else if all goes well) could certainly be a fun candidate.

[Florentia]

Dude, I'm so in.

More seriously, I really think San Castellino could be the country intercepting the plane for 3 reasons that I will expose to you successively :
1. San Castellino is clearly hostile to Volta. Indeed, the ruling party is absolutly anti-communist and would probably prefere to be dead than red. For San Castellino, Volta is very very probably considered (at least officially) as a constant threat since it is communist.
2. San Castellino would probably not hesitate to shoot the plane if they think it is a danger for national security. Especially if it comes from a country to which they are hostile.
3. San Castellino will not hesitate one second to blame Volta and to shout everywhere that it is a terrorist attack of the government of Volta to destabilize the san castellinos government.

Finally, I really like the idea.

[Kolhar]

On 12/3/2021 at 6:41 PM, San Castellino said:

Dude, I'm so in.

More seriously, I really think San Castellino could be the country intercepting the plane for 3 reasons that I will expose to you successively :
1. San Castellino is clearly hostile to Volta. Indeed, the ruling party is absolutly anti-communist and would probably prefere to be dead than red. For San Castellino, Volta is very very probably considered (at least officially) as a constant threat since it is communist.
2. San Castellino would probably not hesitate to shoot the plane if they think it is a danger for national security. Especially if it comes from a country to which they are hostile.
3. San Castellino will not hesitate one second to blame Volta and to shout everywhere that it is a terrorist attack of the government of Volta to destabilize the san castellinos government.

Finally, I really like the idea.

If you're still interested, I think San Castellino could work well too.

It could be a flight either leaving Volta, or returning to Volta. Maybe a flight to Fulgistan, or some other country in northern Alharu or Argis.

[Florentia]

I'm still insterested, indeed !

I see two possibilities :
1 - a flight from Wien to Fulgistan's capital city

2 - a flight from Wien to Saint-Alphonse de la Victoire (New-Lyria's capital city)

For the first option, the plane would be shot above Ferdinades. The region is actually carefully looked by the castellinos governemnt because of the tensions between New Lyria (claiming the region because of the heavy lysian speaking minority) and San Castellino. This option could also involve Fulgistan in the rp if the plane was coming from Fulgistan to Volta.

For the second option, the plane would be shot above the region just right to the castellinos capital city (south) or above the Mariachi desert (north). The most likely between the two is the region just right to the capital city because of the proximity of the capital city. This option would involve the Commune of New Lyria in the option, a kind of modern-day French Commune which is probably the best ennemy of San Castellino and will very probably support Volta (but probably not to the point of going to war on Volta's side if it breaks out between the Volta and San Castellino).

Edited January 3, 2022 by San Castellino (see edit history)

[Kolhar]

13 hours ago, San Castellino said:

1 - a flight from Wien to Fulgistan's capital city

This would be the most interesting to me personally. Especially considering Fulgistan and Volta have economic ties, both being members of ICEB, and with Volta reforms it would make sense for travel between Volta and Fulgistan to increase. As for whether @Fulgistanwants to be involved in the investigation, well that's up to them so in tagging them I guess I'm asking if they're interested because I'm all down for it!

However, there is another thing. I was speaking with @Gallambriaooc'ly to discuss what type of aircraft could be involved in it (I've always been a huge Boeing fan irl, so I was thinking that maybe Voltan Airways upgraded their long-range international fleet to !Boeing aircraft once Ernst Krenz took power. Likely by leasing !777's with the option to purchase fully-fledged !787's should Volta's economy start growing rapidly). We had just come to an agreement that the aircraft involved could be a !B777 (of some variant) when I brought up to them that if this went ahead they could also be involved in the rp if they wanted to, since rl-wise under Annex 13 the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation (henceforth referred to as "the Chicago Convention") they would be considered both "the State of Design" and "the State of Manufacture" (for reference, Volta would be "the State of the Operator" and San Castellino would be "the State of Occurrence").

However I was told that, as far as they are aware, on Eurth there is nothing like the Chicago Convention that exists... which if true opens up a whole new can of worms that we can explore.

Basically, with something like the Chicago Convention, San Castellino would be legally obligated to allow Volta (as the State of the Operator) to be involved in the investigation via what's called an "accredited representative" (with or without associated advisors) (source). However, without the Chicago Convention, San Castellino has zero obligation to do this... which would likely lead to a massive international diplomatic incident as Volta wouldn't take too kindly to having a large number of its own citizens shot out of the sky and then being refused permission to investigate why. Not sure if San Castellino would actually go this far, but I can certainly see it happening, especially considering that San Castellino does NOT recognize the current government of Volta and instead recognizes the government-in-exile.

So I guess the questions is.... is it true that Eurth has no equivalent to the Chicago Convention? And if so, would San Castellino actually go as far as to deny Volta permission to investigate what happened in San Castellino's territory out of ideological reasons?

Edited January 4, 2022 by Volta (see edit history)