Originally Posted by
AngryMiller
Baggage gets x-rayed and if you have high density items (i.e. tools) it gets opened and checked by hand. The big gaping hole in security is that cargo doesn't get the same scrutiny level that checked baggage gets so if a terrorist knew which flight the cargo bomb was going to be on, just ship the bomb by air. <snip>
Thanks.
So a bomb would have to be high-density? I suppose that makes sense; other places I get the impression that the explosive needs to be packed tightly to be effective.
As to cargo--I understand why the explosion of a Fed Ex plane would not have nearly the psychological impact (except on Fed Ex pilots) that the explosion of a commercial airliner would have. But if I'm a terrorist, I probably don't care much which flight it's on; just that it be a passenger flight. If I take a box to United and say, here, ship this as cargo, do I know that it will go on a scheduled UA flight? Or do the airlines have separate cargo flights, or sub-contract with freight carriers?
Or would it be pretty suspicious of me to even attempt to ship a package by a commercial airline, when carriers devoted entirely to freight are so readily available?