Mikel, it's super to have the top person ring in on this. Why don't you go ahead and close this thread and the slow/timing out one.

And to all, since Stephanie is reporting that the assault is still underway, if "all fall down" again, Gary Leff's (gleff, the chair of TalkBoard) View From the Wing blog has garnered a lot of posts by FlyerTalk sages, particularly when we couldn't get into FlyerTalk over the past several days. (Where there's a will...) Look under several of Gary's entries, as it looked like things were going to be hunky dory again.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/

Last, as to the reason? "Because they can" is quite sufficient in these cases. This one is looking more like the assault in India a few months ago, than a one-off sniper attack. These Friday the 13th bad guys have a plan. The goal (if more than "all fall down") is the question.