Pilot upset over TSA actions Christmas day

Pilot upset over TSA actions Christmas day

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Published on January 5th, 2010, 1:05 pm
Rift: News

While this topic is related to Summy's ravings about the President's failings regarding terrorism, I prefer to start a new thread on a less hysterical note.

A pilot who was flying toward the US on Christmas day says that he was never informed of the terrorism situation, and didn't learn about what had happened until he looked on the CNN web site. I agree with him that this sort of thing is a serious failure of the system, and it should be investigated. A decision was made by someone, somewhere in the chain of command that no alert was needed. That person needs to be found and questioned.

While it turns out not to have been a fatal error... it very well could have been. And that sort of error can't be allowed to recur. Not in this system.

...but didn't it originally get reported as a firecracker going off on an aircraft???????

Why panic them? Sounds like the pilot is throwing a fit that he just discovered he's a cog in a bigger machine.

Liv wrote:...but didn't it originally get reported as a firecracker going off on an aircraft???????

Why panic them? Sounds like the pilot is throwing a fit that he just discovered he's a cog in a bigger machine.

While the passengers in the aircraft initially thought it was just a firecracker, the crew and the folks in the immediate vicinity figured out it was a bomb pretty much immediately. The pilot radioed an emergency. The authorities knew from that moment that they had a terror attack on their hands. The other flights inbound needed to know and put standard plans into action. This was a serious failure of the system that needs to be addressed as seriously as the boarding security failures.

Nah.... No worries... we're all going to die sometime, right?

Liv wrote:Nah.... No worries... we're all going to die sometime, right?

True. Still, there's no reason to let the day arrive sooner than necessary, eh?

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:
Liv wrote:Nah.... No worries... we're all going to die sometime, right?

True. Still, there's no reason to let the day arrive sooner than necessary, eh?

So we waste our lives worrying about everyone trying to kill us?

Anyhow, I get it... but aren't they saying this attack was over Gitmo?

Maybe if we get our country in order, they'll stop bombing us.

Liv wrote:
SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:
Liv wrote:Nah.... No worries... we're all going to die sometime, right?

True. Still, there's no reason to let the day arrive sooner than necessary, eh?

So we waste our lives worrying about everyone trying to kill us?

I wouldn't recommend that. But it IS the TSA's responsibility to prepare and react.

Anyhow, I get it... but aren't they saying this attack was over Gitmo?

Maybe if we get our country in order, they'll stop bombing us.

I have no clue what the real motivation was. Getting them to stop is of course the $3 trillion question.

Alright... but seriously let's figure this out.... There's about 50,000 flights a day right? Carry the one, divide by 0, and you've got a crap load of flights that have occurred in the last 9 years.... The percentage of actually dieing on one of these planes has got to be fairly remote, and I wonder has the actual percentage of terrorist type events upon planes actually become anymore prevalent... because... before bombs, we had hijackings.... and that's just as bad IMHO. As soon as we stop the bombs, they'll shoot them down with should mounted bazookas.... ...the rest of America can worry... I'll keep on flying.

Liv wrote:Alright... but seriously let's figure this out.... There's about 50,000 flights a day right? Carry the one, divide by 0, and you've got a crap load of flights that have occurred in the last 9 years.... The percentage of actually dieing on one of these planes has got to be fairly remote, and I wonder has the actual percentage of terrorist type events upon planes actually become anymore prevalent... because... before bombs, we had hijackings.... and that's just as bad IMHO. As soon as we stop the bombs, they'll shoot them down with should mounted bazookas.... ...the rest of America can worry... I'll keep on flying.

The probability of any specific flight getting bombed is, I agree, not a reason to stop flying. The hassles associated with proving that you're not carrying a bomb are a somewhat better reason to avoid the airport when the option is available.

But you know, the recent stories... of an airport being shut down because of honey, and of a security test in Slovakia running out of control and putting real bomb parts on a plane in an innocent passenger's luggage... the air transport system is a place of certifiable madness.

I just can't figure out air travel these days. I mean, you get on a plane to be flown to distant places, and you KNOW that everyone is nervous about what can potentially happen if some nut wanting to get to heaven gets on board. It's like being in a horror film -- your imagination runs away with you and crews become hypersensitive.

So how does ANYONE decide to "become disruptive" as a passenger on these planes? Did this moron flying to Hawaii never watch Airplane II?

Only once in my life have I ever had to yell to get a flight attendant's attention... but once I got her to help, I apologized. I know it's a tough job, and I have no desire to get on their bad side. Because in the end, I just want to get the hell out of the plane at my destination with a little hassle as possible. Some people just can't seem to wrap their heads around that simple idea.
:roll:

When we make planes safe, they'll just start blowing up airports. Same amount of people, just not in the air.

Now it has been revealed that the security folks figured out that this joker was a danger while he was on the flight from Amsterdam. IMO, a question naturally arises -- if they knew he was potentially dangerous, and if the airlines have procedures in place to respond to potential terror dangers, as the initial article above states, was this crew notified to be on the look-out for this character. And if not -- WHY?

It's obvious by now: No air marshal.

Boy -- imagine if they decided to put air marshals on all flights that set to ground in the US. That would be a fun expense line in the budget.

However, since the TSA and the airlines all know that this police presence isn't going to be on all flights, I would expect the crews to have training and practice at handling this situation on their own. It's only common sense to be as prepared as you can be.

I wonder if flight attendants get any sort of training in hand-to-hand combat?

Supposedly they're transferring all domestic air marshals to international because of this. Makes sense. Not sure why they don't use some algorithm to determine a likelihood of risk based on passenger lists and then put a air marshal on board the riskiest. Same with elaborate airport security... put Google in charge,, they'll have it banged out in a week.

I would have thought that explosive sniffing dogs would be a cheaper and more effective device than the body scanners they are planning on installing. Mr Hotdog had a scant 80grams of PETN powder, that could easily be distributed in ways that would make it difficult to spot in scans or pat downs.

I also wonder what the effect of 80 grams of PETN would be on a plane. Possibly enough to blow a small hole in the fuselage and depressurise the plane, but it's unlikely to have brought it down. When a similar amount was used in a similar method to assassinate Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, it blew the ass off the suicide bomber but the prince survived with only mild injuries. (Initially it was thought the assassin had the PETN in his rectum, but later analysis showed that it was in his knickers.)

Personally I don't see the airport scanner tech working in this country. Wait for the first 90 year old smuggling her liquor flask in her panties to be strip searched and see who gets sued. I think laws are going to need to change before we adopt stuff like this in America 100%

Pilot upset over TSA actions Christmas day

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