Making the Wrong Connection: The Determinants of Terrorist Targeting of Airplanes and Airports

Why do terrorist organizations target aviation targets? While there has been very good research done on state level factors relating to counter terrorist efforts and terrorist hijacking, there has been very little research focusing on why terrorist organizations decide to target aviation in the first place. In this paper we use the Big Allied and Dangerous data set to explore this question. We focus on ideology, experience, knowledge and environmental factors that might make an organization more or less likely to target aviation targets. Our hypotheses are partially supported and our analysis raises further questions about why some organizations are more prone to attack airplanes and airports than others.