Originally Posted by
InkUnderNails
This is a real "trusted traveler" program. But, read the whole thing they no longer do it.
They have to submit their names to trusted traveler every flight. The bus has to be checked and made "sterile." They get to take scary water and wear their shoes, but the real reason this is done is to prevent the disruption to operations in the terminal. For a charter flight where everyone knows everyone else, it is stupid at the highest level. Once the cockpit doors are secured, the only danger to the flight is the pilots.
It's a team! A professional team that knows each other and their oddities at a ridiculous level of detail. And if one guy gets freaky, twenty five highly trained athletes can't stop him?
I must take exception only to this:
Once the cockpit doors are secured, the only danger to the flight is the pilots.
Are we forgetting the dangers of deferred maintenance, the effects of corrosion and metal fatigue, equipment failure, extreme weather events and flocks of large birds? Some of these risks can be and are mitigated. Some, not so much. For the most part, the pilots and flight crew don't scare me, nor do the passengers, even if they are highly trained professional athletes.