Originally Posted by
williamsg4713
"Well, duh," will be your reaction; please bear with a newbie. If this is a topic that has already been beaten to death, please direct me to the relevant threads.
It occurs to me that a bomb in checked luggage or shipped as cargo is a bigger danger than one carried to the cabin, if for no other reason than that the suicide bomber can succeed no more than once.
I know that we try to avoid that by matching a list of those who check to a list of those who board. But how hard would it be to circumvent this?
I know that checked baggage is subject to some scrutiny....but, in the opinion of FT observers, is this scrutiny truly effective. Especially because x-rays are a major element in that scrutiny, and as many are pointing out, x-rays cannot detect explosives.
The answer is not that hard. I don't know what the screening issues are today for cargo, but the freight operations are a big part of the airline's business. The mail is carried on airplanes. How much of it is pre-screened by the post office? Hard to tell. Truly rushed stuff can be transported via the airlines on a "counter-to-counter" basis on pretty much the same mechanism you use when you buy a ticket. If a business needs to get something somewhere fast and reliably, they can dispatch a cargo agent to the local airport and buy passage for the package for around $100 one way. You go to the counter with your package, 30 minutes or more prior to a flight, pay the freight costs and your package is on its way. At the destination, it is picked up at the airline's counter. You can ship up to 45 kg this way.
I don't know how much screening is done on these since I've always shipped 'em by bonded freight agent back in the day I was involved in this.
Off hand, I can think of maybe 1 or 2 thousand ways to do badness with inadequately screened cargo which are better left unsaid.