You are quite right Dennis - the security measures won't stop the baddies - just the goodies(!)
The thing that actually will stop the baddies is that we the industry have a long record of being pretty switched on actually - frequently many of us have done
the right thing for the greater good , on the Q T .... so it is rather demeaning that the authorities can't be bothered to get to know who we are and trust us - WE are not the bad THEM - we are US - perhaps 'they' could make the effort to engage with us and permit us to stay in business - the Olympics will cost some businesses ONE WHOLE YEAR of labour to re-coup the cost or perhaps put them (US) out of business!!
Please let us live - we're really happy to have the Olympics here - we don't even mind paying for it ! but how about let us run helicopter shuttles for instance - let us share the economic stimulus... The Onshore Helicopter industry could enjoy this payday to keep it in business against the odds ...
Have the terrorists won? Have they put us out of business? We don't need to let them beat us ... we can operate safely, security wise, it's not that hard.
So I pay half of what I earn to employ state operatives - are they going to deny me the other half of what i earn too ? What will we eat?
There is a process - it isn't too late - there are probably only 100 pilots which keep 2500 others employed - we could get them (all well known to the 'Authorities') to phone in a flight intention to a nominated 'Authority' (eg an FOI, or their local police etc ) prior to flight just to assure that there is no duress...
.. and i guess that our 'population' has enough fiber that it would be pretty hard to get one of us to actually deliver the Ricin to the stadium .. i don't believe that there is any one in our industry susceptible .. you'd be killed anyway so you might as well not go - a short swim in the Thames isn't that bad is it?
The only one of us who ever did go anywhere because of the gun in his side (not that it mattered then) is actually running the 8 film helicopters which will be allowed 'in' !!
Can't
we trust
us? It's not too late - we designed whole aircraft in less than 2 months when we needed to in '44 - we could easily do this too - if we could be bothered.
Who's on the board from our industry? - can something be done?
Don't be defeatist.
Show of support please.. legacy for us too please
