In yet another attempt by terrorists to use an airplane to kill many people in a spectacular fashion, I've been sitting here pondering various things.

1.

The 3 most spectacular efforts (the shoe bomber dude, the liquid gang, and underwear man) took place on flights originating in Europe and a gang arrested in England if I recall correctly.

The attempted shoe bombing resulted in passengers having to remove their shoes and have them scanned in all American airports. No one knows why as the shoe explosive is not detected by X-ray. The only discernible result is longer lines, shorter tempers, and a probable epidemic spread of athlete's foot fungus among air travelers.

The liquid gang arrests resulted in travelers having to carry teeny bottles of liquid through security in one quart containers. How this will stop a gang from moving through security with their small bottles and then combining them after arriving on the other side of the checkpoint is not discussed. One assumes this is for security reasons.

Will the underwear weapon result in us having to remove our underwear for scanning? If so will it be underpants only or will we women need to hand over our bras?  Spanx removal may slow the lines quite a bit.  Will men have to remove undershirts? Will babies and toddlers have to remove their diapers?

Do European airports make people remove shoes for scanning before boarding flights? Underwear? What about liquids? Inquiring minds would like to know.

2.

It seems everyone is confused about what to expect when flying. When my kids flew out here before Christmas, my son was waived through security. He later found he had forgotten to empty his pockets of: about $1 worth of change, a wood screw, and his apartment key on a large metal keyholder. No one said a word, he wasn't stopped.

On the way back, neither of my kids had bags to check, the security line was short and they had no problems at all. YMMV but I expect the major delays will be in checked baggage lines because no bomber has tried to use checked baggage. It must therefore be screened even more thoroughly than ever before.

3.

I have been reading about the new and improved in-flight restrictions...

-Having to stay seated the last hour of a flight.

I must have missed the reason given that a terrorist can only strike during the last hour of a flight.  I looked an looked and couldn't find it. 

This recent incident took place while underwear man was in his seat.  I believe shoe bomber dude was in his seat too.  In light of these facts, the conclusion could be, the government wants to encourage this behavior. 

-One article said this included flight attendants too.

Because the latest terrorism attempt was by a flight attendant walking down the aisle of the plane? To keep the flight attendants from being traumatized by seeing someone trying to light their undies on fire?

The answer to these burning questions are being withheld for security reasons.

- No laptops, books, magazines, iPods, in-flight entertainment, etc. during the last hour of flight.

Thus ensuring every passenger will suddenly realize they desperately need to use the bathroom but they aren't allowed to leave their seats. Will airlines start issuing a stack of Depends for passengers before allowing them to board?

- No blankets or pillows during the last hour of the flight.

Does this include coats that didn't fit in the overhead bin? Will they also be taking away shoes and underwear just in case?

****

When I have spoken to people about the airport screening measures, I have found that many don't mind because they feel better when they think the government is doing something to protect us.

Will having their iPods and computers taken away in-flight be a more daunting prospect than taking off their shoes? Will there be a passenger revolt?

One hopes so.

It will be interesting to see how far this goes. In the meantime, I may have to do quite a lot of driving.

Posted by: Teresa in Idiocies at 06:00 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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