Forget The Pilots... Arm The Passengers.
11.16.2001
To begin with, it is important to note that the rules of terror in the skies has changed after September 11. It used to be that the terror was achieved by the terrorists simply taking the airplane hostage, then making some demands or statement, then perhaps blowing up the airplane. This is no longer the case. Now, once the terrorists have taken the airplane, the lives of every passenger are null and void. They are the breathing dead. Harsh, but true. And unfortunately there is not one way to make airline security fool-proof, or airline travel 100% safe from terrorist attack.
Not one.
Even with strip and cavity searches, the disallowing of carry-ons of any kind, or any of the other authoritarian proposals being considered, there will always be some loop-hole in the airline security plan for terrorists to exploit. There's just no way to make airline travel fully terrorist-proof. As always, you can't legislate safety.
Even so, some well meaning but misguided folks want to increase the amount of regulation and beauracratic hoops that travellers have to endure just to get onto an airplane (as things stand now, I could drive from Indianapolis, IN to Kansas City, MO - and eight hour drive - faster than I can fly there because of the extraordinary time it would take for pre-flight check-ins). Proposed security measures include anything from national ID cards ("sir, can I see your papers?") to hardened/lockable cockpit doors to using U.S. military personel for security checkpoints at airports. While these measures will submit travellers to undue burdens and Americans in general to authoritarian rules right out of Orwell's 1984 or Nazi Germany, they will do little or nothing to deter a determined terrorist from taking control of a defenseless airplane...
Some others, however, have proposed arming pilots either with taser guns or even actual handguns (I would prefer the latter). Now, this is a step in the right direction, but it still doesn't cover all scenarios. Arming our pilots is a good idea, especially since a majority of commercial pilots have had military training, but if they're behind locked, hardened cockpit doors, their responsibility will be to remain safe behind that door so as to keep the terrorists away from the controls and the plane from being used like a smart missile. Thus, with the pilot and his sidearm behind a hardened, bullet proof cockpit door, the passengers would be at the mercy of the terrorists.
Another proposal which, I believe, is actually being instituted will be to train and place armed Air Marshalls onto each, or at least most, flights. However, while this is not a bad step, with about 30,000 flights it will be an expensive solution, and besides, again it's not a fool-proof plan. If there's only one Air Marshall on any one flight, all the terrorists have to do is make sure to have 4-5 of their fellows on that same flight, then identify and kill the Air Marshall. By a simple act of terror - say one of the terrorists stabs some random passenger, for example - the Air Marshall will be drawn out and identified as such because it will be her duty to respond to the stabbing... when she does so, one of the other terrorists (all of whom are sitting in seats apart from each other, spread evenly througout the cabin) needs only to simply attack the Air Marshall from behind, say hitting her with a laptop multiple times over her head. This simple plan would be an effective one for the terrorists because the terrorist who draws the Marshall out doesn't even care if he dies in the effort, as long as he dies for his cause and his supposed deity.
The best solution is to allow anyone and everyone on the flight to be armed (though we should, as much as it pains me to say, still screen passengers for bombs). This may seem backwards thinking to many, because it would again 'allow' terrorists to have guns on the aircraft, too, but think about it logically. If anyone can be armed on any flight, there is a great likelihood that there would be multiple, perhaps a great number, of armed passengers on every flight, comprising an armed airline security force that would be much greater in number than the current Air Marshalls plan (and would cost nothing). So, not only would the terrorists have no clue who was armed, and therefore wouldn't know who to kill to eradicate threats to their control of the aircraft, but even if they could somehow identify and eradicate one or two such armed passengers, there would be two or three (or hopefully more) other armed passengers ready to finish the job. And yes, several good people might die in the attempt to destroy the terrorists and their evil plans - but remember, the people on such a flight are dead anyway. They might as well go out fighting on their feet instead of crashing into a building on their knees. And who knows, they might be lucky enough to take back control of the aircraft and be able to land it safely.
The nice thing about this plan is that it works as a deterrent (ask the Israelis), not because the terrorists are afraid to get shot (they want to crash themselves into a building!) but, quite simply, because once the terrorists lose control of the aircraft even if the plane goes out of control and crashed into a corn field (like the flight that crashed into a field in Pennsylvannia on September 11 after the passengers attacked the terrorists on their flight) the terrorists don't fulfill their goals. Yes, they destroyed the aircraft, but for them it would be a let-down, not enough bang for the buck, after destroying the World Trade Center towers and part of the Pentagon on September 11. Again, the rules have changed, and if they're going to die they'll want as much impact as possible.
Oh, by the way, don't worry about bullet holes in the fusilage of the aircraft causing explosive decompression and sucking people out into the upper reaches of the atmosphere... I'm no physics professor but as I understand it, that only happens in James Bond movies!
Agree? Disagree? Think I'm full of it?
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