Epic Win: Pre 9/11 Airport Security
Submitted by amy
Remember when you didn’t have to take your shoes off, stand in long lines or have Swiss Army knives confiscated because they pose a threat? Remember when you could sneak a flask on the plane so you didn’t have to pay $8 a shot to get a little liquored-up? And all of your family members could meet you right as you de-boarded the plane?
It was a glorious time that we all wish we could return to… And if you’re not familiar with this pre-9/11 airport security, go watch any movie from the ’80s or ’90s that features an airport scene and you’ll quickly realize that things were far different back then.
Except that that security failed to prevent 9/11…
More like epic fail…
I agree. Thousands of people died because of this “epic win.” I know what they mean by saying it was great, but I think at the very least they should have said that the epic win was the “convenience of pre-9-11 airport security” and not the security itself.
D00d. No airline security could prevent 9/11 attacks. Mainly because no one try to pass those gates with guns. No one ever tried this for serious. Guns were already there placed by some people from the airport. No security can prevent that to happen. All that is to give you an illusion of security. Illusion and not real security (armed crew? isolated pilot cabin?)
Actually, the 9/11 hijackers didn’t use guns. They used “box cutters:” small utility knives, and maybe they pretended to have bombs as well. The epic fail was following the conventional wisdom that it is better to cooperate with hijackers than to fight them off. 9/11 worked because the hijackers behaved in a way that people didn’t expect. It likely wouldn’t work a second time, and even on 9/11, the passengers aboard the fourth plane learned what was happening to the other flights and ended up fighting back.
Today’s airport security does not appear to be any better at keeping dangerous weapons off of aircraft than it was in the past. It is just theater, designed to make people feel more secure, but it is just as insecure as ever. But the risks are still very low. To put it in perspective, in September 2001, more Americans died in car accidents than in terrorist attacks, and it is still safer to fly on an aircraft than it is to drive to the airport.
Oh, you mean the “Hijackers” that attended the Defense Language School @ Maxwell AFB in Alabama? The “Hijackers” who were confirmed to be drinking (forbidden by islam) and cutting up in a titty-bar the night before they carried out their Mission-for-Allah? The “Hijacker” whose passport miraculously survived the WTC crash and was “found lying on the ground?” Or, the “Hijacker” who was “below average” at flying a Cessna 172 (according to his certified flight instructor), but managed only 3 months later to fly a Boeing 757 in a textbook-perfect 360-degree downward spiral into the very section of the pentagon that was closed for renovation?
Shall I Continue?
Please do, I’m getting a great tan off your tinfoil hat.
Obvious troll is obvious.
Dispute the evidence, not the messenger, moron.
troofers make me lol
LOL
Oh good a 9/11 truther. These guys are so cute.
You 9/11 truthers really need to commit collective suicide. Seriously. You are *THAT* useless to the world. The thought of you voting and driving and able to purchase firearms and fertilizer is disturbing. But, oh, wait, Oklahoma city was G-Man operation, too, right?
huh? wait. I’ve missed something here, apparently. Someone raises seemingly legitimate questions about 9/11 (of which there are many!), and the best response that they can get is essentially “whoa! that guy must be some kind of terrorist! he needs to die!” …anyone familiar with the term “newspeak?” It’s really a shame, the kind of place that the United States has turned into. Silly me, I guess 9/11 really DID change everything.
These “legitimate questions” are usually absolutely cretinous however. “Fire can’t melt steel!” Really? That must be news to the people who used fire to make the steel girders into the right shape in the first place. “Buildings don’t fall down like that!” Really? You were expecting it to topple like a tree? Which force is acting on the side of the building to cause that to happen? “They weren’t good enough pilots to do it!” The hard part of flying is taking off and landing. Crashing is the easy part. “No buildings have been completely destroyed by planes crashing into them before, it must have been bombs!” Most plane crashes happen before landing, with a mostly empty fuel tank and a pilot trying to slow the plane and land safely, not a pilot deliberately slamming the plane into something as hard as possible with a full tank of aviation fuel.
…yet noone has actually taken on the claims that U_R made about the hijackers. Typical Straw-Man tactics, to steal the debate from the actual point that was being made, That the Hijackers’ behavior makes the Official 9/11 Fairy-Tale HIGHLY questionable. Keep in mind that this event is still used to this day as justification for every unpopular government action, from airport cavity-searches to the slaughter of brown people worldwide.
Of COURSE people have taken them on. The hijacker’s behaviour isn’t unusual at all – a religious fundementalist is a hypocrite and his motivations are politically rather than religiously based. JESUS STOP THE PRESS! THAT’S JUST IMPOSSIBLE, NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!
If it was a massive government conspiracy, why would they make such a basic error? If it was to be used to justify the invasion of Iraq, why not make the hijackers Iraqis rather than having them come from a country which is a bosom buddy of the Bush Mob?
Ceefax, you fail at logical debate. On one hand, you make the assertation that the “hijackers” are not religious fundamentalists, but rather political extremists. Yet you’re still willing to accept the whole “we martyred ourselves in the name of Allah” baloney. Of course, this is yet another false argument anyway. Please, Ceefax, go ahead and believe what you want. Ignore the fact that two of the “Hijackers” had listed the Pensacola Naval Air Station as their home address on their drivers licenses. Ignore the fact that 4 of the “Hijackers” are alive and well in Saudi Arabia, and immediately after 9/11 went to the international press and the US Consulate demanding an explanation as to why they were being accused of being Hijackers (and dead). Forget about the FBI touting “Mohammed Atta’s Last Will and Testament” that they allegedly found in his checked baggage that, coincidentally, just happened to not make his connecting flight. Come on now–why would you pack your Last Will and Testament with you on a suicide mission that is surely to end in a fireball? Or moreover, why even check baggage on a suicide mission in the first place? No Ceefax, these things won’t interest you. I’m sure you can find something to watch on TV.
Agree. Well said.
That’s what I say. Whenever someone frets about air plane crashes or worries about terror attacks on a plane, I remind them that more people die from car accidents, falling in their own tub, drowning in their own pool etc. than have ever died from a plane crash of any kind. I don’t see anyone calling for a ban of cars (except for the really crazy among the environmentalists), tubs or home pools though. I’m sick to death of the security these days at airports. It’s such a pain! And like he said, a really smart terrorist could still figure out a way around it. For that matter, they could just bomb the airport without even getting on a plane. Take Denver’s airport for example. Anyone can just walk in there and wander all over the place where there are hundreds of people and never get stopped by security. You could take out three hundred people easily just by lobbing a bomb over the side of the railing of the top floor where the shops and restaurants are right down on the heads of all those people waiting in the maze to go through security. Not that I plan on it or anything, just saying it would be really easy.
Dude, if the pilots seriously wanted to take the aircraft down, they wouldn’t need guns. For example: they can simply fly the plane into whatever they want. Why would they need guns to take over a plane they’re already in control of?
I agree. You did bad, OnceUponAWin.
I don’t agree. If you think airport security was the cause of 9/11 think again.
I’m glad I’m not the only one that immediately disagreed. My roommate works for TSA (airport security) and you guys don’t realize the stuff they STILL catch everyday…bombs, weapons, etc. It is very serious, and the extra hour of screening that keeps my flight safe is okay with me!
No, it didn’t. Free access to the cockpit is what failed to prevent 9/11.
Remember terrorists are about striking fear in society – not about killing the maximum number of people. Terrorists target airlines because we all act paranoid about airline security. If airline security was the same as at the bus station and we weren’t so uptight about it, we’d probably be just as safe.
Mission Accomplished!!!
I’ve noticed this a lot travelling from country to country- not all places require you to strip down before going through security; just place your bags on the x-ray table and you’re good to go. It is a shame we can’t still be like this.
I remember when my grandpa came to visit us for my brother’s HS graduation. My dad, me, my Uncle Bob (who was also visiting), and I think my brother all went to the local airport to pick him up. My Uncle is this really tall man who likes to wear big belt buckles, and I remember when we went through security, he kept making the thing beep. They had to use the wand. It was so funny.
I miss being able to be there at the gate right when family comes off the plane. It was fun trying to figure out if they were near the front or the back of the plane.
I also remember, after 9/11, visiting family in Oklahoma after I graduated from HS. When I went to fly back home, my uncle (a different one from Bob), drove me to the airport. He hugged me before I went through security and that was that. It was better to have your family/friends/whoever wait with you at the gate for your plane so you didn’t have to be there all by yourself (if you were flying by yourself). I understand why things had to change – I’d rather be safer – but at the same time I wish they could be a little more lenient.
I’m actually flying out to Oklahoma next week for my cousin’s graduation, and it’s the first time I’m flying since they put the new rules about liquids and all that. That’ll be interesting…
Go to the TSA website, they explain what you need to do, what you can and can not take. Real simple rule for the liquids, if you go back to grade school science you will remember that there are 3 types of mass. Solid, gas, and liquid. If you can see it then it is not a gas unless you are looking at the vapor. If you twist it bend it then shake it and it still looks the same as when you started it is a solid unless it is so solid that you can not do the above. EVERYTHING else falls under liquid, cream, gel, and if it is in a presurized can then it is a liquid in an aerosol can. None of what you take ON the plane with you can be larger than 3.4 ounce CONTAINER. Look at your toothpaste, it is a cream or gel and in a 6 ounce tube. One squirt left, so what, too big of a container. They do not determine how much is in the container, it is the size of the container, they have rules to follow and so do we, follow the rule and don’t give them any crap, they get enough that they do not deserve. They are mostly ex military where I travel out of most the time and felt the need to do more for their country when 9/11 happened. The fact that they are looking for something that they all truely hope never comes into the airport is not an excuse to complain because someone was not prepared for the screening. When they are looking for bomb parts and all the guns knives etc they take a lot of useless stuff but they are doing it all to protect us from the one that might be the one. 2 million passengers pass through Americas airports every day, I hope they don’t make a one in a million mistake, that would be 2 planes blown up. I saw the Lockerby plane and a baby sticking out of the side of a house, I don’t want to see that again!!!!!
I appreciate what the screeners are trying to do as much as the next passenger, even if the evidence that it really makes us safer is a little thin. But, there is a big hole in your logic there. A “one in a million” mistake only gets two planes blown up IF every single one of those two million passengers is trying to blow one up. Realistically, it’s more like one in a million passengers has evil intentions, so missing one in a million of them would result in a catastrophe once in about every 1500 years.
Though the only time I was ever on a plane was after 9/11, I’d thought I’d point out: I love the epic wins that are more of an idea than an object.
I’ve flown post 9/11 about 8 times.
It’s pretty easy when you get used to it.
I’ve pretty much learned to wear easy to take off shoes/sandals so I don’t piss off the people behind me, heh.
Funny thing once, though. My family and a few friends were crossing the land boarder from Canada to the US to go to Florida. That was pretty simple, no questions asked type of thing.
When we got to the buffalo airport though, I swear they noticed our Canadian passports and made us go to extra security were they took us to a small room and it took like 5 minutes for each person.
I swear it was my Canadian-ness. Haha.
I tried to get on a plane with a pair of cuticle scissors. They took them from me. The ‘blades’ (and that is being kind) were less than half an inch long and had rounded tips. I suppose I could have brandished them menacingly but I doubt anybody with half a brain would have taken it seriously.
I went to Denver about 6 years ago to visit an old friend from college. Since I didn’t have a debit or credit card at the time, she bought my tickets for me (I did pay her back). No problems getting there, but in DIA, I got “randomly selected” for a full pat down. The two security guard options were tall, hot, guy or short lebian bull dyke. Guess who I got.
I hope when people visit you at work they go home and place messages somewhere that say you look like a dyke or an idiot.
I need a before and after shots of that image.
*smirk* They never find MY knife.
9/11 happened because before then, nobody was willing to believe that anyone was crazy enough to crash a plane they were still onboard. Hijackers before then usually landed somewhere and then demanded money/prisoners released/etc. They didn’t purposely kill themselves. The 9/11 hijackers claimed to have bombs, but didn’t really, and then were basically given control of the planes. Anybody can go in the bathroom and cobble together something that looks enough like a bomb – without using anything that would get confiscated by security.
Yeah, I’m sure anyone could easily McGuyver something in the bathroom out of hand soap and the sink faucet. xD
I’m totally serious, btw, it’s probably not that hard. I:
9/11 happened because before then, nobody was willing to believe that anyone was crazy enough to crash a plane they were still onboard
Um… really? So the Japanese kamakazes were all a big lie? Come on now.
The kamikaze were a little bit of a different story. Look up the Bushido code. It was also an act of desperation during a shooting war.
Oh shove off 8E. That comment just shows how stupid you are.
People had alwayes been told to coperate with hijackers in the past for exactly the reasions Turtlegirl listed. Just do what the bad men say and it will be ok, act like a hero and someone gets shot.
Kamakazes are a compleatly diffrent situation. After you’re out of amo, or going down any way, take a few bastards with you.
Notice it’s a picture of a Braniff Airlines counter. Anyone remember Braniff? Pan American? Eastern Airlines?
Notice it’s a picture of a Braniff Airlines counter. Anyone remember Braniff? Pan American? Eastern Airlines?
I was a flight attendant pre&post 9-11. I know how poor security measures were and are. The truth is, if they want to make plans and coordinate to be on plans with box cutters like 9-11, it will happen. The current measures in place are only to make the average traveler feel safe. Terrorists will find a way. There are so many opportunities to smuggle simple weapons on board that it is pointless to even try to prepare for such a thing. I wish that 9/11 never happened. But, it did. There is nothing we can do to take that back, but we certainly should not pretend that we can prevent it from happening again by having such severe security measures.
Thank you for sharing an “insider’s” perspective. I’ve traveled a fair amount pre- and post 9/11, and your comments affirm what I’ve long suspected.
Some years back (?pre 9/11) 60 Minutes interviewed a man who was (?Israel’s, ?El Al’s) security chief. I think he’d been paid by the U.S. to assess and advise on air travel security. He had identified some gaping holes and suggested fixes and, if I remember correctly, the U.S. ignored them.
IMO, most of the Homeland Security Act (a title so reminiscent of something out of Nazi Germany it makes me shudder) was designed to allow the government nearly unfettered access to information and nearly unlimited power over individuals. I find that idea more frightening than terrorist attack.
I’m a farm girl and I feel naked without my knife. I’ve only ever flown post 9/11… the local court house does a better job knife finding than airport sec. *rolls eyes*
Actually, I’d like to mention that I’ve bypassed security on a few random occasions.
I’m a member of a college pep band, and even though I’m only in my first year, I traveled on a chartered flight from NJ to Oklahoma City for the NCAA Sweet Sixteen (women’s) tourney.
Apparently, you can still bring a flask…
Somehow, I got in with a quart of milk.
Well, it was half full…
I brought along sharpened ice skates on a trip
Man, this is the ultimate epic nostalgia for me. I travelled a lot pre-9/11, and the attacks actually happened while I was abroad. It really went downhill when they started making you take your shoes off. Then the restrictions on liquids, then they started confiscating laptops when you cross the border (not sure if they still do that).
Airport security is necessary, but not to this extent. When I can’t even bring an unopened bottle of Coke on a plane, and I have to buy one on the other side for $5, it has gone too far.
I feel your pain. My mom brought some yogurt from California, a brand you could only find there, back to Pennsylvania, well…she TRIED to. They gave her guff about it and made her dump it all out. What a waste! I know there were those guys who bought liquid explosives on board but couldn’t they figure some way around detecting those so I don’t have to bust out more money for drinks on the plane?
And I hope they don’t try taking my laptop when I go to Mexico this year. The worst I’ve got on there is like, puffy stickers.
I travel often and hear all kinds of complaints. All it takes is a little research and more often than not you will understand why certain rules are in place. I know it is the TSA site but if they publish what was found I wonder what they didn’t put out for fear of other people thinking… Anyway read the articles at this site and go to the bottom first to see WTF..
http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/terror_plot_hearing.shtm
Besides it being a lot of “security theatre” as my security professional BIL likes to say, it is also inconsistently applied. If the the rules were the same each and every time I traveled I wouldn’t be so annoyed. But different airports, hell, different screeners, seem to make things up suddenly out of whole cloth a lot of the time. Most memorable time was when I flew from Oxnard thru LAX to Frankfurt and then back home with an external hard drive in my back pack along with the laptop. At each security check I took out the laptop just as it said to, The rules state nothing about external hard drives so I left it. I got all the way back to LAX and was stopped when I tried to get back through security on the puddle-jumper to OXNARD for crying out loud and asked to take all electronics out. I was informed (quite incorrectly) that one ALWAYS had to take ALL electronic out. Patently untrue. Not on the site, not on their signs. Nowhere. (And I have flown dozens of times post-9/11 with everything from iPods to that external hard drive to automotive diagnostic equipment. This one pissant had to give me trouble when I was jet-lagged and SOOO close to home that I almost said screw it and called my husband to come get me at LAX instead.
I also find it funny that in no other country I have flown to thus far have I ever had to remove my shoes to get through security. ‘Nother story, much funnier, was the one time I was flying home from Hamburg and my feet were really killing me while waiting in line at security so I took off my dress shoes. The German gentlemen behind me asked his companion if they would have to do that and he replied “No, that’s just a crazy American thing.”
And lastly, someone please tell me why, if we are so much safer screening us, they still don’t screen most cargo that goes on planes?
I won’t say anything about how the security works nowadays but darnit, do I miss how it used to be. I traveled on my own a lot, even when I was very young but I never felt unsafe or anything. The fact that my parents could accompany me to the gate was always so reassuring and the first time I traveled without them being able to do that, I felt alone and scared for the first time. It really sucked.
I don’t know how this new security is helping but I do know that it’s annoying and makes traveling an even bigger pain in the butt. Not to mention how much it costs nowadays to bring more than one bag on the plane.
I remember being able to sneak into first class or visiting other passengers, it was so nice and I got to meet a lot of interesting people. Security or not, these new rules just ruined air travel for me. It’s become just as antisocial as any other mode of travel. Where once you could go to different parts of the plane and chat with other people, now you stay in your assigned seat and that’s it. Anything else is reserved for frequent flyers, business class, and people who can afford extra leg room.
Simply put, I miss the old system. The new security doesn’t make me feel safe, it makes me feel anxious. I’ll always fear the plane crashing, terrorists or not. That’s more or less what I’m concerned about. Hopefully in the future, things can go somewhat back to the good ol’ days and air travel can be fun again.
Heck with the *leg room*. I need more BUTT room!
We need that too! This is the 21st century, damnit!
It’s weird when you see a pre-9/11 movie and crossing airport security somehow figures in the plot, whether it’s an action thriller or a comedy. Particularly stuck in my mind is the scene from A Fish Called Wanda where Kevin Kline brings a hand gun on a flight (international?) by chucking it past a metal detector and catching it on the other side. As if!
How am I supposed to eat my fellow passengers when our plane goes down in the Andes if I don’t have my Swiss Army knife?!
I understand that there is a general distaste for the presence of airport security nowadays; I work for the TSA and I see why almost every day. Some of my coworkers were given this authority and became Super Cops, it’s a mentality that happens to a lot of people that are given a badge and put in the public eye. It’s unfortunate but it’s just another fact of reality and human behavior, you just have to expect it and take it with a grain of salt. You will run into the officer that’s respectful once in a while, but you really have to look hard.
In my eyes, our role is important, but it’s difficult to tell whether there are no threats, or if our position really is preventing them. The fact of the matter is, something to the caliber of 9/11 hasn’t happened since, so in my perspective, things are A-OK by me. And besides, like some up here have said, just get used to the procedure and do what the agency (the rules are made up at the top, from people who don’t even come near the checkpoint) asks you to do. It’s much easier that way.
I believe your roll is important as well. However, it maybe that the published rules are made elsewhere and are easy to understand if passengers just pay attention, but I have run into many cases of the rules being inconsistently applied or new “rules” being made up on the spot by grouchy (bored?) TSA workers (see my comment above.)
And of course there is the absurdity of some of the rules such as not being able to bring on my computer toolkit (because it has itty bitty screw drivers I might drive through somebody’s eye or something) but the nice lady can bring her knitting needles aboard, no problem. You can hurt someone with those things, ya know! And why can parents of babies bring on formula but I cannot bring on my unsealed soda? And the 1 quart baggie thing is a joke.
And I am way not OK with some TSA workers becoming Super Cops and treating us as if we are all terrorists. Again, only happens to me in the US. The screeners at the airports I have been to outside the US are unfailingly polite and professional. (Can’t say the same thing about the airline ticket agents but that’s a whole ‘nother bitch session. Also, admittedly I mostly travel to Western Europe so I cannot say that it is ONLY the US that is this bad.) I’ve even sent complaints which probably gets me put on some special list of “troublemakers” or something but serves no other purpose.
On the other hand I have run into many very professional and polite TSA workers and I know a good many of them are really just trying to do their jobs. And I know that the much of the screening stuff is actually useful. I would just like to see good, well-thought-out and consistently applied security measures rather than the “security theater” absurdity we have now.
I haven’t flown from any big airports since 9/11 brought in all these major changes but even flying from small airports the changes are noticeable. I have had to take my shoes off for x-ray, x-ray my laptop separately from my bag and of course take no liquids. I even binned the round end scissors from my first aid kit just to make sure there were no hold ups.
I thought that if we changed our day-to-day life like this then the terrorists had won.
Some day in the future you will have to wear skintight suits to board planes.
In my mind: I cannot un-see it.
Try stripped, drugged, tied into a sack or straightjacket, and carried on & off unconcious.
1st this is in very bad taste and 2nd this way to recent to be here and 3rd this is just so much fail it defys calculation
I’m going to refrain from the debate as to whether this is a true fail or a true win, but will agree that there are things I miss about pre 9-11 security, such as being able to wait for your loved ones at the gate.
Before I was married and long before 9-11, my then husband-to-be travelled to Oklahoma to visit me and my family. I had asked my mom to take her phone with me, which she let me. When I went through the security checkpoint, I was asked to turn the phone on to show that it was truly a phone. With a chuckle I glibly said, “Lucky for you it really was a phone!” The security guard laughed and agreed and waved me on. Now can you imagine what would have happened if I had said that now? My goodness! They’d have me pinned to the ground and a swat team swarming on me in a matter of seconds!
As for surviving security, my top tip is wear shoes that you can slip on and off easily. It saves both you, security and the people behind you a bit of time. Sadly, it doesn’t really help me now because I have three lit’luns to haul through security.
The obvious truth is looking at this picture just makes you nostalgic for the world we all used to live in. Whether it was pre 9/11 or whether the intense security began even earlier than that. I’ve ben flying quite often since the late 70’s and I’m sure it didn’t all start at 9/11.
I have a card from United Airlines that says:
“Razors available upon request. Please ask stewardess.”
There was a time when people would shave on an plane.
FAIL!
Pre-9/11 airport security was a win, and anybody who thinks that all of the “security” measures that have been implemented since then actually make them safer has been brainwashed by the government’s propaganda.
Being forced to take your shoes off, remove your laptop from its bag, and not take any drinks, nail files, razor blades, etc., through security has not stopped a single terrorist. Nobody has ever even /tried/ to use any of those things.
I agree. I don’t think anybody feels too threatened by nail clippers and a bottle of shampoo. The really sad thing is that there is a giant emergency axe right behind the pilots seat, easily accessible.
I remember the pilots also used to hand out pilot pins
and allow little kids to come up and see the pilot. That was fun.
Those were great times, visiting the pilot was one of the best experiences a kid could have (as long as you don’t like gladiator movies…). No one was all stressed out and you didn’t need a cavity search.
Working for an electrical contractor in the 1990’s, I can recall walking on board with my toolbag (because I didn’t want to have it stolen). X-Acto knives, screwdrivers, ball-peen hammer = all good. As long as you didn’t have a gun or a bomb, you were good to go. Now a nailclipper is considered a dangerous weapon, get real! Water bottles (the kind you bring) are bad, the $3.00 ones they sell are OK.
It’s amazing that one incident has to turn flying into a harassing experience.
BTW, I now drive rather than fly if at all possible, and it’s not because of the “terrorists”.
I think what I miss most is being able to wait inside the terminal nearer the runway. There was something lovely about having a crowd of people waiting there, watching the jet. Instead of waiting by the baggage claim.
The key act that would’ve prevented 9/11 was often discussed beforehand; rendering the cockpit inaccessible. Pilots said no; they wanted the option of wandering around the cabin and offering select folks admission to the Mile High Club. Even after 9/11, when the airlines and government finally (someone’s always gotta die FIRST, y’know) stood up to the pilots and said “we’re shutting the door,” the pilots still needed to learn the hard way: in February 2002, a passenger on a United flight from Miami to Buenos Aires began pounding on the (newly-reinforced and locked) cockpit door; the pilot promptly OPENED THE DOOR TO SEE WHAT ALL THE FUSS WAS ABOUT and the passenger charged inside (the co-pilot smacked him in the head with an axe). As far as I know, the pilot faced no discipline for his action.
*sigh* Guys, go watch the Current vid about 9/11 on youtube. Seriously. Tragic, sure, but come on. It’s the scape goat for anything these days, just say it’s “post-9/11 safety” and that anyone who disagrees is “unpatriotic” and you have carte-blanche to do whatever you want.
9/11 was horrid, regardless of who was at fault. The fact that it is being used to fear-monger and limit the freedoms of America and the world after the fact is truly tragic.
Remember, there is a distinct difference between remembrance and living in fear.
I’m afraid that I have to agree, at the very least with the intent of this Win. The last time I flew was just after 911, and I was told not to try flying again. At the time, they believed that a person who has frequent seizures (that the “brilliant” doctors can’t seem to get under control) is some kind of threat to the airline. Because I hadn’t given the airline a complete rundown of my entire medical history prior to flying, and they suddenly discovered that I wasn’t in perfect health (as if the wheelchair wasn’t a dead giveaway), they wanted to prevent me boarding the plane in Chicago. I told them that Chicago was a layover for me, and my final destination was in Kansas. I had no other way to get home (and for obvious reasons, I couldn’t drive a car). The captain finally said I could get on the plane, but he also warned me that people with my health problems weren’t allowed on airlines anymore. They have since “discovered” that siezure patients are not a threat to airline security, but with my host of associated health issues and all of the new security since added (like cavity searches), getting through security is now nigh impossible for people like me. In short, if I want to travel, I either have to pay 5 times what it costs to fly to get a sleeper car on a train or stay home.
The problem with post-911 security is that it prevents many people from being able or wanting to fly. Honestly, who wants their vacation to start and end with being treated like an inmate at the state pen? For people with just about any kind of significant health problem, air travel becomes almost impossible. And then they wonder why the airlines are going broke…
It seems to me that trying to stop terrorists is like trying to stop hackers, botters, god-moders, and gold farmers on just about any MMORPG. If you try to catch every single one, you will just waste a lot of time and resources. The best option seems to be reducing the benefit of using such things. How about locking the captain and copilot in the cockpit from takeoff until landing? If no one can breach the cockpit, no one can take control of the plane. As for bombs, I doubt that you could stop them by catching all the pieces. It seems more reasonable to try and find out why people are taken in by radical whackos bent on destroying other people. Maybe there is no way to make peace with people who think of terrorism as a reasonable action, but it can’t be any less effective than what we’re doing now.
~Quag
just calm down. It’s all going to be ok
I just saw one such movie. The title: “Victory at Entebbe”.
I’m actually old enough to remember the incident portrayed in the film…
The current security precautions provide little more than an illusion of security and a way for the politicians who passed the regulations to appear to be “doing something.” As an earlier poster rightly pointed out, aircraft hijackings and any hostage situation, for that matter, rely on the victims trusting that if they cooperate, they will not be harmed. After 9/11, it is highly unlikely passengers will trust hijackers. As a result, restricting things like nail files, scissors, and other items that could theoretically be used to harm someone provides no appreciable security benefit.
Far more effective than silly carryon restrictions would be periodic ad campaigns reminding people that cooperating with hijackers is no guarantee of safety and may well assist them in killing more people. Such a campaign serves as a deterrent as it makes hijackings less likely to succeed.
Branniff! LOL! Ah, right next door to Piedmont I’ll bet…
[sadheadshake] Everybody is much too emotional about this. The truth is, until & unless we take airport security seriously, like Israel, we’re still horribly vulnerable. Nasty things can & will happen, it’s just a matter of time.
Before you jump me, consider this. I’m a career medic & firefighter. Born & raised in New Hampshire, Yankee native & right on site for the main event. I lost friends, professional & civillian. I remember the spate of hyper-patriotism immediately following & it disgusted me because I KNEW it was shallow & hollow. Look at how little has been done once the immediate evidence of the aftermath was removed.
The dead know only one thing; it is better to be alive. Were they able to view & comment on our dissension they would encourage us to put away our egos & work together to make things right. Unfortunately, with politicians instead of leaders & statesmen, we’ll never have the unity of purpose & global effect that America’s Greatest Generation achieved.
That so many people would sooner choose safety over freedom means the terrorists won already. They wanted to terrify people, being terrorists, and lo and behold people were appropriately terrified and made it obvious that they were.
I don’t know about that, Operator. I look at it like wearing your safety belt in the car, or having a fire extinguisher handy; you don’t have to expect trouble to be prepared. I don’t fly much personally because it’s too much to pay for all that hassle & then having no wheels when you get where you’re going… but I’m awfully partial to my ‘71 Riviera & hate driving anything else (fire trucks & ambulances excepted).
I don’t get the sense that the American population is fearful. Confuzed & frustrated for lack of a solid target, but if terror was the goal I think they’re as far from it as possible. Admiral Yamamoto worried about awakening a sleeping tiger on 7 December ‘41 & I believe the terrorists have learned the same lesson. Terrorism by definition is sneaky & de-centralized though, so cranking up the war machine & pummelling an enemy into submission is virtually impossible. What we’re faced with now is insidious complacency which will provide the avenue for another attack. I don’t disagree that sacrificing freedom for security is a execrable idea & counter-productive exchange, but in that case we’re talking about warrant-less wire taps & domestic spying, not common sense safety. There are many options, most of them unpalatable, but that shouldn’t deter us from doing the right thing, especially when the other choices are convenient but unwise.
You are ALL retards.
I do miss the pre 9/11 airport. It made going to the airport less of a nightmare. To give you all something to think about the 9/11 attacks, all I have to say is that I was serving in the US Air Force on that day. I was stationed at Andersen AFB on the US territory of Guam and for us, we were waken up in the middle of the night after the 2nd plane hit the WTC. Long story short, a room full of Air Force personnel that night looked at the damage at the Pentagon shown on TV and collectively agreed that there was NO way a plane crashed into it. It appeared to us, who I would consider to be well informed and quite qualified to make a judgement in this matter, that some sort of missile hit the side of that building. Evidence? Complete lack of wing and vert. stabilizer (tail) debris. Neither would have cut through the building, they would have broken off in rather large chunks and strewn about the lawn. You may argue that the wings burned up due to the fuel lines to the engines, OK, but there isn’t that much Jet-A (fuel) running through those wings compared to the fuselage and once that burns up, they would be detached from the fuel source so there would have been something left, and the vert. stabilizer had nothing flammable what so ever running through or near it, given that the 757 is a twin-engine aircraft, so there is NOTHING to allow it to catch on fire, short of an electrical fire which doesn’t burn hot enough to completely disintegrate the vertical stabilizer. We believed that night that some country was sitting off the coast of MD and shooting missiles into Washington DC. We turned out to be wrong, no there wasn’t anyone sitting off the coast, however it was not an airplane either.
I agree with you, Kristen. I hate not being able to say goodbye at the gate or meeting anyone there. I don’t want to have to do it outside security or at baggage claim. I don’t enjoy flying anymore because of all these stupid security procedures.
I would prefer airport security the way it was before 9/11 over the mess we have today. It’s too much of a hassle. All it does is make us more obedient and complacent to government intrusions in our lives. How much more are we going to take so we can “feel” safe, but not actually BE safe? Where do we draw the line?
If we keep being nice, good, obedient citizens who blindly obey all these stupid rules without question, then we can kiss our country goodbye.
A few years before 9/11, my dad was going through security when he realized he’d forgotten to remove his switchblade knife. He told the security guy and was sure he’d get it confiscated. The guy just flipped the blade out, held it next to something on his little podium/desk thing, and handed it back because it was less than four inches long.
When I was waiting at the KC airport to fly to South Carolina to go to basic training for the Army, the other recruits and I all had to put our razors into a girl’s bag that she was checking so they wouldn’t be taken away. A little bit of contrast for you.