Originally Posted by
williamsg4713
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?
Carriers use what is available that is going to delivery the package on time so you really don't have much of a clue as to which flight the package would be on. As to shipping a package on a passenger plane, it happens all of the time if they have cargo space for it. That is why the screening of all cargo going on to a passenger plane is such a big deal. It doesn't happen due to costs, both personnel and equipment.