Hijackers - what else SHOULD we do? Suggestions invited.
To say that the World Trade Centre, and Pentagon kamikaze attacks, and the Pennsylvania crash (speculated at this time to also have been a hijacking) were any worse than other cases, is highlighted by the fact that these were MULTIPLE incidents in a specific time frame.
The value of the domestic passenger jet as a tool for delivering death, maiming, and extreme personal and public financial damage, has been realized in the most horrendous way.
So what can be done to try to prevent these cowards from achieving their goal, if/when this happens again. My two bob's worth is to suggest:
(a) A plainclothes, armed officer present on EVERY flight, seated in the front 4 or 5 rows. It would be important that NONE of the crew, and perhaps check-in staff knew his id nor seat number, and that the same seat not be allocated each time. Singapore Airlines already occasionally employs this technique.
(b) The cockpit be equipped with repellant gas cannister(s), or "stun gun".
Over the top? Look at these latest cowardly hijackings, and realize that this will certainly give other fanatics a goal to try to equal.
Suggestions please?