Originally Posted by
aclark79
You could load anything you want, and do alot of damage potentially, but the fact is, unless they place SAM's atop every rooftop, and have itchy trigger fingers (leading to lots of accidently shot down aircraft) then nothing will stop a terrorist in the air.
The only place to stop them is on the ground, before they take off.
Fighters would take to long. Airspace restrictions (Total ban over the city) can't actually stop anything (its not a force field). Shoulder missles from troopies on the ground would end up shooting down to many friendlies and even if we did shoot them down, if they had biological or radiological agents, shooting them down would just spread it around the area outside of Manhattan, but still in a populated area.
I think we can settle down the terrorist discussion as it leads to nothing. I guess we all agree that safety could be improved by various practical and unpractical ways. However, if the East River area is an airspace that is problematic I as a person living and working right there on the ground appreciate that if something good comes out of this tragic accident than it is more attention towards this fact and maybe some better regulations. Those who want to see NYC from air can still hire a professional pilot - so why not requiring special training/knowledge/licensing if you want to fly around in a tight airspace, surrounded by densly populated areas, high rising buildings, bridges and 3 major airports (sounds like a no-brainer to me...)?