I just read an AP article about some new restrictions being imposed on flyers because of the recent incident. One of them is absolutely ridiculous.

Apparently some airlines are confining people to their seats for the last hour of a flight, which is just plain silly. Passengers may not hold anything in their laps, or access their carry-on during this time. The brilliant execultives involved in this decision have apparently decided that the critical element in the attempt to light a fire was that it occurred in the last hour of the flight.

Do you reallly think the airlines believe that if the man had been told he wouldn't be able to get to his carry-on during the last hour of the flight, he would have abandoned his plan? I'm sure it has occurred to them that he simply would have done it earlier, but they see this as an opportunity to further restrict passenger movement as a bone to throw to the cabin crew. The cabin crew would like to see us all locked into our seats and immobilized for the entire trip, of course.

Are people with in-lap children going to be required to put them in the overhead bins? If I need to use the bathroom, will they really make me wet myself?

The other change is that security is going to be so hard on carry-on luggage that they recommend that you not take any at all. I can just hear the airlines cheering as they plan to collect all those checked bag fees.

None of this is keeping us safer. It just makes it look as if someone is doing something.