So let me get this straight. Dutch Security fails to identify a potential terrorist and keep him off a plane flying in to Detroit. Then, the guy turns out to be a not very competent suicide bomber and fails to properly discharge his chemical detonator concealed within the lining of his underwear. He is then subdued by fellow passengers and is now an existential threat to the United States from inside his cell in a Federal penitentiary in Ann Arbor.
Because of this, I will now not be allowed to leave my seat to pee for the last hour of any flight, unable to have a blanket if I somehow get to sleep, and maybe will not have the ability to use electronic devices at, well, pretty much any time during my flight. Well, that might change with a by-your-leave from the airplane's captain. Someone seems to have forgotten Rule One. And that the Lockerbie bombing took place less than an hour after takeoff, not in the final hour, which pretty conclusively demonstrates that if a nutbag wants to blow up an airplane, he doesn't much care where in the flight arc he might be.
I don't see how preventing me from using my laptop or making me pee my pants is going to keep the airplane any safer. And at some point, this increased and increasingly burdensome airline security is going to produce not just diminishing but decreasing returns in terms of both overall safety and allocation of security resources.
I think these new 'security' measures are a PR gimmick to show airline travelers that they are doing 'something' about security.
ReplyDeletePeople now probably think that the last hour of the flight is the most dangerous now, but it's not.
Taking off is worse because you have a full tank of fuel.