TSA - Pilots to be exempt from scanners & pat downs.

[911slf]

The rules have changed?

Before 911 I think a sufficiently ruthless bunch of karate experts could have taken over an aircraft without any weapons at all. In those days people thought that their best chance of survival was to co-operate with hijackers - if the guy wants to go to Cuba OK we are going to Cuba.

But now even if someone gets an AK47 on board it is still worth fighting because if you don't you are going to die anyway - so why go over the top searching for weapons? What am I missing here?

As for suicide guys, as has been noted, anyone prepared to board with a device in his rectum is not going to be detected.

As has also been noted, the people gaining access to an aircraft without flying, including cleaners, loaders, engineers; are probably better placed to do damage at no risk to themselves.

So maybe we should say that to get anywhere near an aircraft for the first time - even as a passenger, you need to give six months notice and undergo a background check. If you fail it you don't get told why. Review cleared people as and when necessary. As Tacomasailor noted, some people are already security cleared, and credit should be given for this.

Of course it would not work every time, nothing would. And of course some people would still need to be checked on boarding. These people should be told it is a random check, but it would of course be anything but random.