Quote:
Originally Posted by hank moon
I went to France in 2000. On the plane with me I had a canyoneering knife, a regular-sized tube of toothpaste from home, nail cutters, a cigarette lighter, and so on. Coming back I brought several bottles of wine (carry-on, naturally) and a bottle of Chartreuse I'd gotten at the monastery. Those were the days...
hank
p.s. And, I wore all my clothes through security.
We (sorry,
you Americans) have to decide where the balance will be between personal freedoms and security. (Then we Canadians will follow your lead.)
Like Hank, I used to carry lots of very handy things in my carry-on. And I didn't have to be at the airport at least 2 hours early for an international flight.
One of the nicest things about my job is the camaraderie with pilots - I'd often have the chance to sit in the cockpit during take-off or landing, or at least spend a little time talking with the pilots en route. In fact we got biannual familiarization flights, in the cockpit the whole way, each way. Led to better understanding between controllers and pilots. Gone now.
Personally, I'm willing to run the risk of being on the exceedingly rare airplane that is hijacked, if it permits me to travel the way I used to.
There are about 28000 commercial flights per day in the US. Prior to 9/11, how many were hijacked daily?
I wish I knew - it's tough to find numbers. One spot I looked said that approximately 22 aircraft were hijacked per year
worldwide, with about 100 fatalities annually on average (from 1947 to 2001). According to Boeing, in 2000, the world's commercial jet airlines carried approximately 1.09 billion people on 18 million flights. So we're talking a one in 11 million chance of being one of those fatalities each time you get on a plane.
Do you think that number would change significantly -
upwards -
after 9/11?
Sure, take a swab of my laptop case, x-ray everything, whatever. But give me a break - if someone's desperate enough to get some liquid through security, do you think that this HUGE bureaucracy is going to stop them? (And have you seen the size of the TSA? Any idea what it costs? Have you
seen them swagger?) A small plastic container full of liquid in one's pocket will not be caught - all one would have to do is look innocent while walking through the metal detector.
Here is a quote from their website:
Quote:
TSA Week at a Glance (March 16 - March 22, 2009)
- 14 passengers were arrested after investigations of suspicious behavior or fraudulent travel documents
- 34 firearms found at checkpoints
- 6 artfully concealed prohibited items found at checkpoints
How many of those arrested were a hazard to their respective flights? How many of those firearms were intended for nefarious purposes? How many "artfully concealed prohibited items" do you think were
not found? Over the course of 196000 flights? I might have artfully concealed items, myself, for the convenience of having them with me when I landed. Hell, I've "un-artfully" carried knives through at least twice (accidentally) and not been called on it.
Is this worth the cost? Monetarily and in inconvenience? And that inconvenience factor carries a huge cost as well, for those traveling for a company, etc. etc.
Bah....