Normally I wouldn't bother posting here but I have finally given in to the ignoranti on here who spout about PC and family held hostage in order to pass on a "proxy" bomb.
For heavens sake, use your minute brains to get a grip and try to understand the problem from a logical point of view. First off, "profiling" isn't racist. Stating that it is, is stupidity of the first order and that makes me prejudiced against fools who open their mouths and remove all doubt about their intelligence.
Perhaps if we used the whole title of "multi-layered psychological profiling" rather than just "profiling" which causes the PC brigade to assume that a profiler only goes looking for people of a certain skin colour or dress. Don't be so pathetically stupid! It's all about demeanour and intent. Intent to cause harm. Intent to meet ones maker and the vestal virgins or whatever.
There are likely to be very, very few chances of someone committed to take his or her own life together with those of innocent bystanders who does not exhibit some (many in fact) signs of the mental state he or she is in. A well trained, multi-layered profiling system would have that person isolated long before they even got into any queue on the ground, never mind in the confines of an aircraft.
And now to the second issue of a crew member being coerced into passing something to A N Other once airside. Have you thought out how difficult it would be to co-ordinate something like that. Look up "Occams Razor" and figure out for yourself whether it is likely to succeed. Some ignorantii watching too many Hollywood movies and actually believing that everything they watch is feasible and possible!
Together with some simple, multi-layered psychological profiling, you're assuming that the victim is not going to exhibit some signs that all is not well. Besides, what is there to stop one of the armed police we watch passing through the system unchecked, hasn't had his family held hostage? Oooh... we didn't think of that. Duh!
Anyway, if only 10% or 20% of people are actually scanned by the backscatter X-Ray machines, how is that security? Are the PC and "proxy" brigades going to assume that by making flight crew go through the ridiculous option of Scan or invasive pat-down is somehow enhancing security? Most likely, but they should all sod off to a pax forum where they can gnaw their nails with anxiousness about the next big terrorist threat. This post is about pilots and not the pax.
We are part of the solution, not the problem. At least the TSA are about to do something positive, finally! Here in the UK we still have to deal with the faceless idiots in the DfT who set rules that are left to individual airports to interpret and implement. They still work to the assumption that in a worst case scenario a pilot is going to have his or her family held hostage in order to pass "something" to someone else airside.
There is absolutely no thought going into "intent" and only on the confiscation of liquids and nail clippers. Of course, the drones in the DfT will tell you that because of their methods, there have been no incidents. Of course, using their logic, I could also state categorically that because I eat a bowl of corn flakes every morning I will never be trampled by a rogue elephant when walking down Kensington High Street.
It is time for our own pilot associations here in the UK to lobby our own parliamentarians to tell the DfT to get out of their secret world of security theatre and get realistic about who is part of the solution. It was stated only a few years ago that here in Europe and the USA we could never have the type of multi-layered profiling system that the Israelis have employed for such a long time because it would be prohibitively expensive. Well, how much do you think it has cost us for the current 'security theatre'? Aside from the fact that it is now a self sustaining industry which stands to lose a lot of money if this were ever to be revealed as the farce it really is. Too many Mandarins would have a lot of explaining with no real possibility of giving a real reason.
So, lets just keep the ignoranti off this thread. You know who I mean. Those that try to interpret this an issue for all pax rather than just the flight crew. Also, the other ignoranti, you know, the ones who fail miserably to understand what multi-layered psychological profiling is all about and instead immediately jump on the PC bandwagon and assume (makes an Ass out of You and Me) that it just involves singling out people on a racial basis.
And finally, lets keep the ignoranti who have watched too much Hollywood movies and have a singular inability to comprehend what Occams Razor is about and why it would be an extremely unlikely event. So unlikely that our own armed police are not suspected of being sleepers or victims of their family being held hostage. So, why should we be treated as suspects?