<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Law Lord:
<begin sardonic observation>
The FAA is keeping DCA closed because it believes that it can't make DCA as safe and as well-protected from terrorists as, oh, let's say, Logan Airport in Boston.
<end sardonic observation>
</font>
<sarcasm on>
No, the FAA is keeping DCA closed because it believes that there are terrorist targets too close to the airport, while there are none close to airports like BOS.
<sarcasm off>
Come on, folks. BOS has the whole downtown area close to the landing patterns. So do lots of other cities. But as we've seen, hijacked airplanes can be steered into targets nowhere near their routes. Even if we now say we can scramble F15s or F16s in 15 minutes and intercept in 10 more minutes, that gives a lot of target-time to a hijacker. Closing DCA is a sign that our government leaders consider themselves a more precious target than us. Same as them having a stash of gas masks but not urging the same for us.