Newsstand - Is air travel safer?

Is air travel safer?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/11/04/ED107009.DTL

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">TRAVELERS TAKE NOTE: Starting Dec. 31, all U.S. airline passengers and baggage will be thoroughly screened by professionally trained, educated civil servants using the latest technologies at all major U.S. airports, and terrorists will never again hijack four jetliners and kill 3,000.</font>

"But are we safer? A little, experts say, mainly thanks to stronger cockpit doors and more alert passengers and crews."

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"Give me Liberty or give me Death." - Patrick Henry

Which experts? Don Carty? The airline lobby group?

Long on complaints, short on alternative suggestions to address the weaknesses that led to 9/11.

"Suggestions to impose tight standards and let the private sector figure out how to meet them were dismissed as craven kowtowing to business at the expense of lives."

I mean, I could be wrong, but isn't this PRECISELY what security was prior to 9/11?

I'm all for a better solution, but reading Ms. Lochhead's column won't provide one.

It's the same whining, over and over and over and over again. It's not clear to me how productive that is.

Finally, yet again, in a rush to accept that a life-threatening challenge has been successfully defeated, she trumpets stronger cockpit doors. I mean, hello, the hijackers didn't bust down the doors in the first place! They sat in first class, at the front, and rushed into the cockpit and quickly killed everyone inside when the pilots opened the door to come out. How do stronger cockpit doors address the issue of overcoming the flight crew during those moments when the cockpit door must open?

I guess Ms. Lochhead doesn't feel that's an important issue.

[This message has been edited by anonplz (edited 11-04-2002).]

It perplexes me that because one man had an explosive of some kind in one shoe on one flight, the federal government has hired 10,000? 20,000? shoe runners (not to mention the other screeners) to take shoes from feet, run them through x-ray machines, and bring them back.

What would they (and we) be doing if the explosive had been in the pockets of his trousers? Sewn into his underwear? In a woman's bra? I'm not sure I want to know.

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"Yes, but at least mine will be found in a first class seat." -- Peattie and Taylor

Well, characterizing the situation that way, the TSA DOES seem absurd at times. Bear in mind, however, that the al-Qaeda training manual contained instructions for working with explosives, how to make and how to ignite. So, while Richard Reid was caught, he is merely the "canary in the coal mine" - that is, we see that the terrorists have been talking about explosives to use in suicide operations, and he is the tip of the iceberg.