You're right Bral, they need to be stopped before getting on the airplane. The problem is, that is not a 100% solution. Sometime, somewhere, they will get through. Then what? There needs to be LAYERS of defense.
1. The US needs to control it's borders. It need to severely restrict access from those countries and societies that are hostile. Those who overstay VISAs should be thrown out NEVER to return. Canada needs to control it's borders and it's anything-goes immigration if it wants retain free access to the US.
1. Entrance into the secure airport area. Limit carry-on baggage severely so that it can be x-rayed and hand checked quickly. Checked luggage, x-rayed and perhaps decompressed, a la El Al.
2. The ticket counter. Pax screening. Profiling (dirty word, but, face it, it's middle-eastern/Pakistani/Indonesean/or Phillipino islamic males without accompanied families that are your most likely threat). PC should not come at the cost of lives. Interpol check. Personal interview and screening similar to what some Intl Euro/UK airlines do now. As a condition of carriage, no persons with histories of paranoid psychosis should be allowed on an aircraft. Sorry, you don't have a right to have a tizzy on my aircraft just because you forgot your medication. Airlines should be allowed to maintain a "blacklist" of louts who have caused serious inflight disturbances. These measure would only affect a minicule fraction of people (with the possible exception of UK footballers), but make air travel much more tolerable for the VAST majority.
3. Air marshalls on aircraft.
4. Flight attendants and pilots trained for the new threat.
5. Cabin monitoring devices for the flight deck crew.
6. Cockpit alerting devices for all cabin crew.
7. Hardened cockpit doors.
8. Lethal last-ditch cockpit defense. An automatic pistol with frangible ammunition for cockpit crew, stored as aircraft equipment in quick reaction safes at each pilot position.
It's never just one defense. By the time a terrorist makes it through the cockpit door, if he's met with two shots in the chest and one in the head, that leaves enough for 4 of his buddies, before the Captain has to use his pistol. Without exception, we can NEVER again allow the command of the aircraft to be relinquished. With the above layers, I think we could say we've done as much as humanly possible to defend the aircraft. While some may object to some provisions, I submit that they'd think differently if they were on-board one of the target aircraft on 11 Sep.
[ 14 October 2001: Message edited by: Roadtrip ]