In the air tonight
At the end of Monday's post, I mentioned that I would be assessing the status of the American airline industry later in the week, but I was half-joking. I had some leftover notes from my New York City diary in reference to the safety treatment we're all subjected to nowadays when we go through those marvelous security screenings. But today's crash landing of a 155-passenger, twin-jet commecial airplane into the Hudson River near midtown Manhattan makes that a rather eerie reference, especially since the plane had taken off from the same airport as our New York City departure roughly 90 hours before.Instead, then, I'll summarize my pre-1/15/09 thoughts this way:
# 1) Taking off your shoes at airports, random full-body searches, and traveling without toothpaste is the height of unwarranted panic and stupidity in the post-9/11 world. How about just putting our bag(s) on the conveyor belt, walking through the metal detector, and calling it a day.
and # 2) Delta airlines cookies is tasty!
Now then, as to the extraordinary men and women who captain and steer our planes-- the statistics that have accompanied today's news alerts illustrate for me just how remarkably safe air travel is in the United States. There has not been a commercial airline fatality in the U.S. air industry in over two years-- a record, and there hasn't been a large-scale crash in more than seven years, also a record. It's not for lack of opportunities, either. Roughly 15,000 commercial flights depart every day in this country.
We often hear people say that air travel is the safest mode of transportation there is, but we rarely see the stats. No news for two-plus years is certainly good news.
posted by CM @ 6:28 PM
3 Comments:
Taking off the shoes and being forced to check a bag if you want to transport liquids - an inconvenience no doubt - but certainly not unwarranted panic.
Both of these measures are in place because of actual, or plotted attempts to bring down airplanes. The shoe bomber had actual explosives in his shoe and only his inability to light a match and the quick actions of other passengers averted a potential disaster. The UK (God save the Queen) uncovered plans to bring down international flights using liquid explosives.
When you get to the airport and they ask if you packed your bags yourself and if they have been in your control the entire time - again, seems like a stupid measure, but we have the Unabomber to thank for that one.
I think they should be able to make a metal detector that can scan your shoes as you walk through, but until that day let's not complain about the extra 30 seconds in your multiple-hour travel itinerary that is required to remove your shoes. And make a small investment in travel size liquids and a ziplock bag if you need to avoid checking a bag. As someone who is getting on a plane tomorrow, I'm glad those measures are there to protect me and my fellow passengers.
It's my point exactly-- every measure taken has been the result of some isolated incident that has no bearing on future attempts and out of complete disproportion to the actual threat.
It might take me just 30 seconds to remove my shoes (I can beat that time actually), but it turns into a half-hour to an hour when everyone ahead of you in line is subjected to the same. If Richard Reid had hidden his explosives up his butt, instead of in his shoes, we'd all be subject to cavity searches today.
Point is-- terrorists have pulled us into a sort of whack-a-mole game, and it's ultimately as futile and costly for us as our similar misadventures in Iraq.
In our airports today, we have eyebrow tweezers and letter openers being confiscated. There are no toothpicks allowed. Individually, this is minor stuff, but it adds up to a frightening hysteria and paranoia that ultimately works against the cause of BOTH freedom and safety. On Sunday, I watched two soccer moms subjected to full body pat-downs in view of about 150 people. We're ALL considered terrorism suspects now, and that, almost by definition, is living in a police state.
The broadened government powers are terribly egregious-- noncitizens can be detained indefinitely with no legal recourse, personal items confiscated without cause, secret searchs, etc.
These are clear violations of the Fourth Amendment, and we have to make ourselves alert as to why they've actually come to be there-- on airplanes, so that hemorrhaging, poorly managed airlines can get taxpayers to foot the bill for safety measures they fought for three decades (like steel-enforced cockpit doors), and in Washington, so that the warmongers can drum up support for "preemptive" acts of violence against enemies of their whim.
Within a month of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden predicted to the world that "freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people-- and the west in general-- into an unbearable hell and a choking life."
The man who dealt it, smell't it.
for some of the best comments on airline security, and air travel in general, read "Ask the Pilot" on Salon.
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