DOTARS changes jump seat requirements

[Worrals in the wilds]

Warning: [rant mode on]

How many serious threats have been thwarted since the increased aviation security? For that matter, how many before 9/11? My guess is absolutely none, because we would have seen a congratulatory two page colour spread in the recent report. Sure, plenty of weapons have been removed from dodgy people, but that hardly justifies the increasing level of craziness as the pre 9/11 measures (with some tweaking) did this adequately. IMO violent drunks / spacked out druggies are a far more tangible risk to aviation, as hardly a month goes by without some violent dork being carted off a flight in chains by the AFP. So why not ban alcohol on flights, as the Indians do (rhetorical question, disarm your flamethrowers)? Because the government is not serious about aviation security. It’s far less trouble to come up with inane regulations that only affect aviation staff, a disjointed and quiet minority.

Australia does not have a serious terrorist threat. It has a potential terrorist threat (as anyone does these days) but it’s nothing compared to Turkey, Spain or Northern Ireland. In those countries (I’ve been to two of them) people entering shopping centres are routinely scanned, fast trains and museums have X ray screening and so on. If DwhateverRS are so concerned about Threats, why have we seen none of this here? An airliner carries a maximum of 530 people (or whatever they can cram into the super guppy these days) plus casualties on the ground. My local Westfield has a food court with greater capacity than that, and an entrance you could drive a semitrailer packed with explosives through. Where is the risk mitigation there? Are people removing their shoes to gain entry?

The government keep banging on about aviation security while they make our working lives harder and more dismal, yet they are happy to leave screening to poorly trained, often subnormal contractors supplied by profit focused companies. If they were serious about aviation security they would have brought the whole sad mess back under government control on 9/12, but they didn’t, and they aren’t. They just make pedantic, crappy decisions from the ivory tower in Canberra.

Unfortunately, the sort of droids that join these departments (speaking as a reformed droid) can’t see the forest for the microscopic bark analysis. That’s all cool until a tree falls on their heads, when instead of removing it and buying a chainsaw they’ll commission yet another expensive 300 page report that proves nothing and goes nowhere.