First of all, I do know that this is a forum for Professional Pilots, if a
moderator thinks that I should not be posting here, please remove my post.
To A310driver
Dear Sir,
You, quite correctly (at least judging Your's and AIRWAYS' profiles),
state that you have more aviation experience than AIRWAY.
Yet it is my opinion that this thread is not about flying an aircraft,
but rather a discussion on the treatment and handling of security.
This subject, is of interest not only to airline pilots, but also to
passenger and other people worried with the current state of the world.
Your experience as a pilot, might give you a view (and a damn good and
valid one) of security regarding threats to the aircraft, but will not
make you an "Instant-all-around-security-expert (just add water) TM".
This experience does not give you the right to say (in a very rude
manner) that someone else's opinion on an event that is only tangential
to the act of flying an aircraft is invalid.
If you disagree, say so and present your arguments!
To 411A,
I think that properly trained sky-marshal might be one of the few
effective solutions available at present. Nevertheless must Europeans
(me included) are uneasy when around guns and some resistance should
be expected.
Calling the outlook of Europeans towards terrorism as "Head in the Sand"
is rather ignorant.
We have had terrorism since Mr McVeigh was a baby.
Just for a sample:
- The Italians had the red-brigades. Killings and bombings through the 70s
and 80s .
They also had a bloody terrorist attack on an El AL check in counter
in Milan(?).
- The British had to deal with the IRA.
- The Germans had Baader-Meinhoff (spelling).
- The French had to deal with the spill-out of the terrorist actions in
Algeria in the 90s, having a series of bomb attacks on crowded places.
- The Spanish have ETA (since the early 70s), during this Christmas they
where successful in stopping an attempt to bomb one of the main rail
stations in Madrid (which would be crowded).
I am sure I have missed some countries and terrorist organizations.
I guess that some would say that the US is the one that is rather new
on the game, and previously had a "head in the sand" attitude towards
terrorism.
And now, MY opinion on the main issue of the thread (and, for the record,
I am not an ATPL and only fly things that are much lighter than what AIRWAY
flies , nor am I involved with security).
Terrorism should not be taken lightly, therefore security should be very
high. This is obvious.
But if you keep having all these high profile "non events" you will get:
- People getting tired. People will start to look at this "security" as
an ineffective nuisance, and probably start pressing for a relaxation
of security (A very bad thing).
- An important impact on tourism. Some in Europe are postponing their
non essential travel to the US. Some of you might say that those that
don't want to go are not welcome anyway. I guess that the US tourism
industry would disagree.
If these events are mostly with non-US airlines, non-US citizens will
look at it with a great deal of suspicion.
This will further erode the capital of "good will" which the US gained
after 11th of September, and make for more diplomatic friction.
I know that the US had a rather brutal wake-up with what happened on the
11th of September, but some of these "security actions" are quite
excessive, and something might be gained by having a good hard look at
them.
If any green card "joke" arises, I (and probably a great deal of other
non-Americans) will be doing the laughing.
Kind regards
CS-DNA