On Mon, 16 Sep 2002, Gerard M Foley wrote:
> I have seen no discussion of the wisdom of the decision to ban air traffic
> over the U.S. for a protracted period following the attacks of 9/11.
In my opinion, shutting everything down on 9/11 was absolutely correct.
Keeping everything grounded for the rest of the week was stupid.
I honestly believe that all the "enhanced" passenger screening, additional
restrictions on what may be brought on board, and "random" searches have
done nothing to improve security. Planes are just as safe today as they
would have been on 9/12/01 because passengers will rise up against
would-be hijackers and no pilot will ever open the cockpit door for a
hijacker again. The 9/11 gang exploited a weakness in the regimen
for dealing with air pirates. That weakness has been closed--not by
any new TSA policy but by the philosophy of the traveling public and
flight crews--so nobody is going to try that again. Any Bad Guys are
going to find a new weakness to exploit; that is where prevention ought
to be focused. Since the shutdown the week of 9/11/01 seemed to be spent
exclusively coming up with new passenger screening techniques (closing
the barn down after the horses were already gone), I see no benefit
to having left the traveling public stranded for several days while
the air system was shutdown.
Respectfully,
Jon
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon Wright jwright@halcyon.com voice 425-635-0338
fax 425-844-1403
You've got a hard lip, Herbert. http://www.spudboy.com/~jwright