Originally Posted by
ornithopter
If I want to commit mass murder, I don't need anything apart from my hands. If I did decide to do it, I wouldn't use disguised toothpaste or anything like that. I'd wait until the Captain went to the loo, lock the door and turn off the fuel controls. That's it. If I wanted to crash into a big city, I could do that too. If I want a passenger to cause mass murder, I don't need to give them anything - use your imagination and you can think up numerous ways.
The airside area isn't "completely sterile" and never will be. A can of hydraulic fluid in the face will disable you to a similar extent to a knife, so what are we to do, remove everything that could be considered even potentially damaging? Naked passengers - all strip searched - background checked - segregated from one another - blindfolded and starved. That'd work.
That is not the issue. As someone who doesn't really wan't to discuss this too much, what is to stop a pilot taking something airside, whatever that might be...... Pilots should be subjected to the same security for the reason of keeping airside sterile.
I'm not saying that there are terrorist pilots, I'm saying why take the risk that there might be........... Anyone in the industry can see the holes, but why take a risk ???