[mrjames]

         A player asked during a game, what would prevent a spirit from entering in an airplane and crashing it.  This has come up on several occasions, as he would send spirits to materialize in the plane itself and use it's attacks to disrupt the systems. Any input would be appreciated, thanks for reading.

[raggedhalo]

A magically-active Sky Marshall?

The summoner's astral signature meaning that the relevant high-level authorities are after them as a wanted terrorist?

[Chaemera]

What Ragged said.

Destroying airplanes is a good way to get very very angry attention from the Corporate Court's underlings, local, national and international authorities. Just have a CC Justice on the next plane he decides to bring down. Not only will there be magically active security on the plane, but the follow-on investigation will make sure that, if he lives, your player has very little interest in pursuing such tactics in the future.

If you don't want to have quite that much hell rain down on him, reduce the CC Justice to a Senator, or witness for the prosecution in a major case. Then, it won't be quite so likely that they'll kill him as soon as his spirit appears in the plane.

Besides, if he's done this more than once, as Ragged said, there should now be magically active sky-marshals on flights in the area, scanning astral space around the plane.

Oh, talk about a brain fart, at 30,000 to 50,000 feet, he's dealing with at least a Mana Ebb -1 to -6, your discretion as GM), and given that Shadowrun planes tend to go into the upper-most atmosphere, if not break it for transcontinental and intercontinental flights, it may even be a Mana Void (-7 to -12), see Street Magic, pg. 119. Most of that range is enough to reduce your player's spirit to low force, if not out-right suppress it completely.

[Kontact]

An airplane to a spirit is a dead shadow against a black wall of lifeless space.

I think that you're giving magic too much credit with a spirit knowing what a plane is, much less being able to find one when told.

Then again, herp derp Search power.  Search is such garbage...

[The_Gun_Nut]

If it were a local hop, then the spirit wouldn't suffer too much from the mana warp.  If it is a conventional transcontinental, then some warp would definately be involved.  A suborbital or semi-ballistic?  The spirit would likely tell the mage to go get stuffed, as mana voids are rather...nasty.

[Chaemera]

An airplane to a spirit is a dead shadow against a black wall of lifeless space.

I think that you're giving magic too much credit with a spirit knowing what a plane is, much less being able to find one when told.

Then again, herp derp Search power.  Search is such garbage...

Also, summon spirit, point at airplane flying through sky, say "go up to that metal cigar, use Accident on the man at the front of the metal cigar until your services are consumed".

If you don't know which airplane, or can't see it, then yes, you have a problem without the search forum.

If you're targeting a specific plane, and aren't stupid, your hacker can name the pilot, provide a photo of him, and then you can stalk him to assense his aura. Presumably, you can describe said aura (or astrally project with your spirit to the plane to point out the aura) and thus, the spirit can use accident, or materialize and use elemental aura & elemental attack on anyone in the cockpit, thus destroying the control systems as simple collateral damage. Down down birdy.

[thalandar]

Accident power anyone?  Planes are most vulnerable at take off and landing, so not mana ebb there.  Really wouldn't want to mess with the FAA, though.

[mrjames]

If you consider that you can buy services of a spirit from someone. Then, kill the mage to cover your tracks. It would not be hard to bring one down without it having to point directly to you. It wouldn't be the first time that a professional did something evil and made it look like someone else. As a side note,  I had a rigger in the group actually get his drones warded to prevent spirits from entering them.  I wondered if airplanes had some of the same security.

[Chaemera]

If you consider that you can buy services of a spirit from someone. Then, kill the mage to cover your tracks. It would not be hard to bring one down without it having to point directly to you. It wouldn't be the first time that a professional did something evil and made it look like someone else. As a side note,  I had a rigger in the group actually get his drones warded to prevent spirits from entering them.  I wondered if airplanes had some of the same security.

There is always evidence, somewhere. There are no perfect crimes. And when you start downing multi-million nuyen planes loaded with corporate citizen passengers, the important people start looking. Carefully.

Heaven help the runner who pulls off so blatant and public a stunt if a celebrity or power-player is on-board.

[Bradd]

Yeah, people are really paranoid about planes. Even though they're quite safe overall, people feel very vulnerable in the air, and any accident is likely a major tragedy. Darkest Hour has some guidelines for travel security. Train security is pretty simple, generally rating 3 (public) devices and minimal checkpoints. Airports aim for much tighter security. Device ratings are only a little higher, probably rating 4 (restricted), but there are a lot more checkpoints, scanners, zones of control, and the like. Sub-orbitals have the same basic security design as airports, but with rating 6 (financial-grade) devices and tighter restrictions.

(The mission doesn't give exact device ratings for airports, but it says that sub-orbitals are generally two higher, which only fits the rest of the description if the ratings are 4 & 6.)

[Kontact]

And when you start downing multi-million nuyen planes loaded with corporate citizen passengers, the important people start looking. Carefully.

Heaven help the runner who pulls off so blatant and public a stunt if a celebrity or power-player is on-board.

Insurance War anyone?
From the Neo-anarchist's Guide to North America

THE INSURANCE WAR
One of the darkest times in Atlanta's history was the so-called Insurance War that rocked the city in the year 2035. The war was between Cord Mutual Insurance and North American Eagle Life Insurance. The stake was the coveted insurance contract for all employees of the new CAS government.

Cord Mutual had just completed construction of their impressive skyraker and had relocated their home offices to the new Atlanta building. Meanwhile, North American Eagle had a long-standing tradition of reliable service in Atlanta, which made them the candidate favored for the governmental contract.

The clandestine war of terrorism between the companies is thought to have started on June 8, 2035, with the simultaneous explosion of six Geas jets in flight from their Atlanta departure point. Geas Airline was insured by North American Eagle, which paid out enormous sums both for the jets and for civil suits by relatives of slain passengers. No connection with Cord Mutual was made at that time.

What followed was a sweep of assassinations of vidstars and entertainment personalities across the continent, and especially in Atlanta. The only connection between the victims was that they all held large policies with North American Eagle, which was beginning to have difficulty paying off its policies.

At some point, it is thought that North American Eagle's corporate investigators made a connection between a suspected assassin and Cord Mutual. Not much is known except that North American Eagle began funding a terrorist organization known as the Medusa Sisterhood to retaliate against Cord Mutual.

The Medusa Sisterhood made a series of vandalous attacks on Cord Mutual-insured corporations and individuals. Cord Mutual responded with attacks on the Sisterhood as well as on more North American Eagle targets. What began as a clandestine corporate power struggle became a bloody war, claiming the lives of hundreds of insured. The media finally broke the story, acting on rumors of the two corporations' involvement in the rash of violence sweeping the sprawl. The coverage caused the CAS government and the City of Atlanta government to come down hard on both corporations, ending the war.

In the aftermath, Cord Mutual was able to provide evidence of North American Eagle's funding of the Medusa Sisterhood, while no official connection was made between Cord Mutual and the independent operatives they used as soldiers in the Insurance War. North American Eagle was assessed fines and several top officials were arrested. Cord Mutual won the CAS insurance contract despite a storm of controversy.

Shortly after the fiasco, Cord Mutual went through a power struggle and several changes in upper management. There was also a supposedly unrelated accident in the company's skyraker, which led to the closing of the building's top 25 floors. Cord Mutual officials said only that it was declared structurally unsound.