Air Travel Safety: Why International Standards Matter

Two things about Liberty and Security: (1) those who demand both in copious amounts will have neither, and (2) the law abiding can never expect compliance by the criminals (or enemy combatants), thus the way to make sure Liberty is enjoyed by the greatest number along with a modicum of security is to deny the Life and/or Liberty of those who statistically are responsible for the vast majority of the crimes/acts of war. Profiling if done in the correct way is a time-tested and proven anti-terrorism tool. Failing to use all available tools is simply foolish, and really does not discriminate, since once the profiled are cleared, they may resume their travel.

The easiest way to avoid being a victim of airborne terrorism: do not fly on public carriers or not at all. I have not flown anywhere since (maybe a year or two before that) September 11, 2001, and I do not intend to.

Bribery is just foolish. Is that how you get Little Johnny to eat his vegetables? Better look and see what goes under the table. Bribes just wind up leaking more money to the hands of those who will turn it into pain. If it was a shooting (firing squad style) offense to elicit or accept a bribe, there would be a sharp decline in the practice. If the same could be said for paying a bribe or ransom, the practice would completely disappear.

Another way: Usher in the robots, and get rid of the minimum wage baggage handlers, etc. completely. No human goes behind the curtain, except the repairman, with his e-pass. Airport security should be given the tools to verify any code the repairman uploads. All baggage should be subjected to complete scrutiny by some heavy-weight detectors. Better yet, put all baggage on a separate, drone auto-piloted flight with no humans on-board. Yet another possibility: forbid carrying anything onto a flight other than a provided jump suit and slippers from the airlines, maybe passengers could keep their underwear. Everything else gets shipped another way on another flight, after intense scrutiny. Passengers would have to be scanned for gut bombs.

Very plausible but unfortunately will never happen. Airline Company upper management would never do what you suggest unless they have to fly in the planes they are responsible for instead of private planes.

GA anyway.

Airlines, maintain and fly planes, security is up to the government. My passport had expired, I used it for 8 months, 6 plane trips, never once questioned by security. Only an airline ticket agent asked me for ID that was current. "I know, I know I look honest".

I was no fan of Edward Kennedy, but when he gets placed on a no fly list and Richard Reid doesn't, a serious review of procedures is mandated, as well as some terminations.

I completely agree with your and Munster's comments.

I recently saw a news piece on Fox News that mentioned that TSA is going to stop accepting Driver License as positive identification (where those DL's were issued by a growing number of States within the United States. Pretty soon, the only people flying will be the pilots and stewardesses (if they aren't also on the no-fly).

If my Texas DL is not good enough for TSA (for a destination within the continental U.S.A.), then I am going cause a mighty stink about it (after I quietly turn around and walk back to the ticket counter and demand a complete refund). If enough people get abused by this non-system, then eventually the people will have enough, and the authorities will have to break down and use common sense as they do in Israel.

I am a native-born Texan, and by God, I will fly wherever, and whenever I choose, or someone is going to freaking pay me big money. Lawyers abound in Texas, some are hungry for beans. And one more thing: I am not one the A-holes who want to blow stuff up, maim, kill, etc. for no good reason. I just want to have the privilege of traveling from point A to point B if I want to, and not a minute sooner (or later).