The Bumper Thread of Airline Security Scares
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Originally Posted by flash8
and what happened to the US/Pakistani woman in the US who smuggled a home made bomb on board a US a/c last week (of course she got the idea from the UK terrorists as it was liquid based and that also happened to be the paranoia-substance-of-the-day)? I mean if it was that serious surely we would have heard more by now? Or was it.. as I think many of us suspected.. just more ****sh*t.
The piss is being taken out of us a bit too much lately.
I'm all for safety naturally like most of us, and erring on the side of caution is second-nature. But this is actually starting to become detrimental to safety!
The piss is being taken out of us a bit too much lately.
I'm all for safety naturally like most of us, and erring on the side of caution is second-nature. But this is actually starting to become detrimental to safety!
Woman suspected of carrying explosives released
By Teresa Moore/The Ironton Tribune
WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va.— Flights in and out of Tri-State Airport are back to normal today, one day after a Pakistani woman was suspected of having possible explosives in her carry-on items.
The liquids in question were apparently not explosives.
By Teresa Moore/The Ironton Tribune
WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va.— Flights in and out of Tri-State Airport are back to normal today, one day after a Pakistani woman was suspected of having possible explosives in her carry-on items.
The liquids in question were apparently not explosives.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/hagmann082306.htm
Don't miss anything usually SatV, but as these occurences are now happening on an almost daily basis, what might have caught my attention a few months ago with alarm bells ringing, now just doesn't mostly even merit the time of day. Its got that bad, I suspect for many of us.
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Media
Been in the business a long time and I can easily say 99% of journos know **** about aviation, and most times when they report on an incident or accident they look like total fools to people who know a bit about the industry.
Below the Glidepath - not correcting
The real danger with this nonsense of course, is that we all become desensitized to it, and inadvertently lower our awareness threshold. 99 nutters later, the real McCoy turns up and everyone has been so FOX'ed and CNN'ed to death with this (no pun intended), something very unfortunate happens.
The complete lack of standardization and consistency from the Government is not helping the current debacle. When security staff are making this stuff up on the spot (e.g. wide variation by Airports and staff in what you can or can't take on board), and nobody challenges them on it because there is no benchmark to measure it against, it leads to distrust, suspicion, and anger towards security staff at the lack of regulation; instead of a common aim from passengers and staff alike towards thwarting the existing threat.
People who fly for a living have long understand the credibility of the Government imposed security measures. The current crisis merely underscores that point by effectively throwing out the existing practices and simply reacting to a threat that has been out there and recognized by security professionals for some time. The need to be "seen to be doing something" has driven the current policy, or what laughingly passes for policy.
No airline professionals should be expected to show initiative in this day and age, where the risk of litigation alone, never mind an actual incident, demands that every stupefyingly moronic act of idiocy on board, or near an aircraft, be met with the full counter-terrorist response. What would undoubtedly help, is if the lazy, slack-jawed neanderthals who report this garbage as news actually gave it a rest, and stopped providing both these morons and their acts of foolishness with the oxygen of publicity. Not only would it help soothe the troubled brows of the travelling masses, it would actually help limit the economic damage to the Aviation industry caused by this type of scaremongering, which is indirectly providing comfort to those who would commit these acts in the first place. Freedom of speech is a fantastic excuse for scaring the public witless, but I believe there was a personal responsibility angle intended to go along with that particular freedom
The complete lack of standardization and consistency from the Government is not helping the current debacle. When security staff are making this stuff up on the spot (e.g. wide variation by Airports and staff in what you can or can't take on board), and nobody challenges them on it because there is no benchmark to measure it against, it leads to distrust, suspicion, and anger towards security staff at the lack of regulation; instead of a common aim from passengers and staff alike towards thwarting the existing threat.
People who fly for a living have long understand the credibility of the Government imposed security measures. The current crisis merely underscores that point by effectively throwing out the existing practices and simply reacting to a threat that has been out there and recognized by security professionals for some time. The need to be "seen to be doing something" has driven the current policy, or what laughingly passes for policy.
No airline professionals should be expected to show initiative in this day and age, where the risk of litigation alone, never mind an actual incident, demands that every stupefyingly moronic act of idiocy on board, or near an aircraft, be met with the full counter-terrorist response. What would undoubtedly help, is if the lazy, slack-jawed neanderthals who report this garbage as news actually gave it a rest, and stopped providing both these morons and their acts of foolishness with the oxygen of publicity. Not only would it help soothe the troubled brows of the travelling masses, it would actually help limit the economic damage to the Aviation industry caused by this type of scaremongering, which is indirectly providing comfort to those who would commit these acts in the first place. Freedom of speech is a fantastic excuse for scaring the public witless, but I believe there was a personal responsibility angle intended to go along with that particular freedom
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Originally Posted by Chesty Morgan
Dunno about you Bruce but there is NO WAY I am going into the cabin in such a situation. My job is to fly the aeroplane, not play mediator to a nutcase. Besides, how would you know if it was or wasn't a ploy to get you out of the flight deck for ulterior motives?
You are the Captain of the ship. Every little thing that happens on board is of interest to you. Get off your arse and go and find out what is true and what is hysteria.
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A US Airways flight from Charlotte diverted to to Tri-Cities Regional Airport was being detained on the airport's new southside taxiway due to a bomb threat, a TCRA official has said.
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http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?se...cal&id=4501850
I wonder where he got the idea that bomb threats result in flight delays ? 
More copycats to come no doubt...
Like I said...
A what ?
LONG BEACH, August 27, 2006 - A college student was arrested after
authorities say he called in a bomb threat to the Long Beach Airport
because he arrived late for his flight and was prevented from boarding,
an FBI spokesman said Sunday.
Yechezkel Wells, 21, was being held at a federal detention center in Los
Angeles following his arrest Saturday night, FBI Special Agent Kenneth
Smith said.
He was scheduled to appear in federal court Monday on charges of
providing false information and making threats, Smith said.
Wells is accused of calling in the threat after he arrived only minutes
before a Jet Blue flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was scheduled to
leave around 9:10 p.m. and was denied a boarding pass, Smith said.
Shortly after, Wells, a U.S. citizen attending college in Miami, was
arrested by local law enforcement at the airport based on unspecified
information in his call.
"He admitted that there was no bomb and admitted he was upset because he
wasn't allowed to board the plane," Smith said.
The plane departed about an hour late after authorities using
bomb-sniffing dogs determined it was safe.
authorities say he called in a bomb threat to the Long Beach Airport
because he arrived late for his flight and was prevented from boarding,
an FBI spokesman said Sunday.
Yechezkel Wells, 21, was being held at a federal detention center in Los
Angeles following his arrest Saturday night, FBI Special Agent Kenneth
Smith said.
He was scheduled to appear in federal court Monday on charges of
providing false information and making threats, Smith said.
Wells is accused of calling in the threat after he arrived only minutes
before a Jet Blue flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was scheduled to
leave around 9:10 p.m. and was denied a boarding pass, Smith said.
Shortly after, Wells, a U.S. citizen attending college in Miami, was
arrested by local law enforcement at the airport based on unspecified
information in his call.
"He admitted that there was no bomb and admitted he was upset because he
wasn't allowed to board the plane," Smith said.
The plane departed about an hour late after authorities using
bomb-sniffing dogs determined it was safe.
More copycats to come no doubt...
Like I said...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A US Airways flight en route from Philadelphia to Houston was diverted to Bristol, Tennessee, Monday because of a bomb threat, an airport official said.
A spokeswoman for the Tri-Cities Airport, which serves eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina, said the FBI was at the airport investigating the threat.
"There was a potential threat of a bomb," she said.
A spokeswoman for the Tri-Cities Airport, which serves eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina, said the FBI was at the airport investigating the threat.
"There was a potential threat of a bomb," she said.
Last edited by PaperTiger; 28th Aug 2006 at 19:57. Reason: I don't know why I bother.
FX Guru
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I'll be careful about too many details here, but I have a friend working for a security service in the UK who has a sniffer dog, trained to detect explosives.
A few months back the dog got agitated about a couple of pax boarding a flight to Toronto.
Turned out they were miners who handled explosives. My friend was well chuffed that the sniffer dog detected the residual they had on their clothing.
The pax were too.
A few months back the dog got agitated about a couple of pax boarding a flight to Toronto.
Turned out they were miners who handled explosives. My friend was well chuffed that the sniffer dog detected the residual they had on their clothing.
The pax were too.
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Stepping out of the cockpit for anything like that would be a no no.
Can anyone remember that poor unfortunate Aer Arran pilot who got his face smashed in by two drunken itinerants a while ago?
Thankfully in that case, the aircraft was on the ground - one can only imagine the trouble it would have caused enroute.
Can anyone remember that poor unfortunate Aer Arran pilot who got his face smashed in by two drunken itinerants a while ago?
Thankfully in that case, the aircraft was on the ground - one can only imagine the trouble it would have caused enroute.
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Privacy International announces the 2006 Stupid Security Competition
Plenty of candidates in the air business. 
STUPID SECURITY AWARDS
21/08/2006
We've all been there. Standing for ages in a security line at an inconsequential office building only to be given a security pass that a high school student could have faked. Or being forced to produce photo ID for even the most innocent activity.
If you thought after Enron that the accountancy profession was bad news, just wait till you hear how terrible the security industry has become. Even before the recent "liquid bomb" scare a whole army of bumbling amateurs has taken it upon themselves to figure out pointless, annoying, intrusive, illusory and just plain stupid measures to "protect" our security.
Stupid security has become a global menace. From the airport that this month emptied out a full plane because a passenger was drinking from a lemonade bottle, to the British schools that fingerprint their children to “stop” the theft of library books, to the airline company that refused to allow passengers to bring books or magazines onto the plane, the world has become infested with bumptious administrators competing to hinder or harass us - and often for no good reason whatever.
The sensitive and sensible folk at Privacy International have endured enough of this treatment. So we are running an international competition to discover the world's most pointless, intrusive, stupid and self-serving security measures.
The "Stupid Security Awards" aim to highlight the absurdities of the security industry. Privacy International’s director, Simon Davies, said his group had taken the initiative because of “innumerable” security initiatives around the world that had absolutely no genuine security benefit. The awards were first staged in 2003 and attracted over 5,000 nominations. This will be the second competition in the series.
"The situation has become ridiculous" said Mr Davies. "Security has become the smokescreen for incompetent and robotic managers the world over".
Unworkable security practices and illusory security measures do nothing to help issues of real public concern. They only hinder the public, intrude unnecessary into our private lives and often reduce us to the status of cattle.
The airline industry is the most prominent offender, but it is not alone. Consider the UK rail company that banned train-spotters on the grounds of security (e.g. see this article(external). Or the security desk of a US office building that complained because paramedics rushing to attend a heart-attack victim had failed to sign-in. Or the metro company that installed a $20,000 biological weapons/gas detector and placed it openly next to a power plug so terrorists could conveniently unplug the device.
Privacy International is calling for nominations to name and shame the worst offenders. The competition closes on October 31st 2006. The award categories are:
The competition is open to anyone from any country. Nominations can be sent to [email protected].
Details of previous award winners can be found below, or at http://www.privacyinternational.org/ssa2003winners.
21/08/2006
We've all been there. Standing for ages in a security line at an inconsequential office building only to be given a security pass that a high school student could have faked. Or being forced to produce photo ID for even the most innocent activity.
If you thought after Enron that the accountancy profession was bad news, just wait till you hear how terrible the security industry has become. Even before the recent "liquid bomb" scare a whole army of bumbling amateurs has taken it upon themselves to figure out pointless, annoying, intrusive, illusory and just plain stupid measures to "protect" our security.
Stupid security has become a global menace. From the airport that this month emptied out a full plane because a passenger was drinking from a lemonade bottle, to the British schools that fingerprint their children to “stop” the theft of library books, to the airline company that refused to allow passengers to bring books or magazines onto the plane, the world has become infested with bumptious administrators competing to hinder or harass us - and often for no good reason whatever.
The sensitive and sensible folk at Privacy International have endured enough of this treatment. So we are running an international competition to discover the world's most pointless, intrusive, stupid and self-serving security measures.
The "Stupid Security Awards" aim to highlight the absurdities of the security industry. Privacy International’s director, Simon Davies, said his group had taken the initiative because of “innumerable” security initiatives around the world that had absolutely no genuine security benefit. The awards were first staged in 2003 and attracted over 5,000 nominations. This will be the second competition in the series.
"The situation has become ridiculous" said Mr Davies. "Security has become the smokescreen for incompetent and robotic managers the world over".
Unworkable security practices and illusory security measures do nothing to help issues of real public concern. They only hinder the public, intrude unnecessary into our private lives and often reduce us to the status of cattle.
The airline industry is the most prominent offender, but it is not alone. Consider the UK rail company that banned train-spotters on the grounds of security (e.g. see this article(external). Or the security desk of a US office building that complained because paramedics rushing to attend a heart-attack victim had failed to sign-in. Or the metro company that installed a $20,000 biological weapons/gas detector and placed it openly next to a power plug so terrorists could conveniently unplug the device.
Privacy International is calling for nominations to name and shame the worst offenders. The competition closes on October 31st 2006. The award categories are:
- Most Egregiously Stupid Award
- Most Inexplicably Stupid Award
- Most Annoyingly Stupid Award
- Most Flagrantly Intrusive Award
- Most Stupidly Counter Productive Award
The competition is open to anyone from any country. Nominations can be sent to [email protected].
Details of previous award winners can be found below, or at http://www.privacyinternational.org/ssa2003winners.
Last edited by dahamsta; 29th Aug 2006 at 11:18.
