This is all a matter of RESPONSIBILITY!

The airlines throughout the years have consistantly demonstrated they have very little responsibility when it comes to protecting their customer's property. Then when the "rubber meets the road" and the airlines have to "shell out" the bucks for lost property, they make it so their customers are victimized twice...or even three times. When customers are even allowed to collect on the damages, the compensation generally takes months to get to them and it is usually a fraction of the total loss.

Combine this with some of the most dishonest and irresponsible employees the airlines hire who have been filmed playing "basketball" with people's luggage, pillaging through people's suitcases and stealing electronic items from suitcases (all of these things are still occurring today).

Personally, the technology MUST be placed in the security areas of the airport and on the airplanes. We have the technology to do this. I have absolutely no problem planning my day to get to an airport two hours before my flight departs. I have no problem going through a thorough personal screening and inspection of all of my carry-ons and on my person.

However, I DO NOT TRUST ANY EMPLOYEE OF ANY AIRLINE OR FOR THAT MATTER ANY OTHER COMPANY IN THE WORLD TO HOLD OR PROTECT MY NOTEBOOK COMPUTER! My laptop has my professional life in it. Yes, it is completely backed up but when I travel to do a presentation, if my computer is lost, that means I have to go out and purchase a new $5,000 computer and load it with all of the data. Then because of the arrogance of the airlines, I will only receive $2,000 for my lost or stolen computer.

The moral of the story is that if the airlines or the FAA pulls this nonsense of banning carry-ons and computers on board, I will immediately regionalize my business and completely discontinue any flights and all of my employees' flights. They will lose millions of dollars of our business and I will just sit back and watch this industry go into the tank!

They do not have to ban laptops on planes. Sky Marshalls and better pre-flight screening will work great. In Israel, El Al Airlines allows notebook computers on their flights and they have some of the most rigid screening in the industry. Yes, you have to get to the airport 3 hours before your flight, but you do not die on their planes.

Our government and our airline companies can make this work with some common sense and no panic. I am just sick and tired of seeing things run with "knee-jerk" reactions and reactive reasoning. It would be refreshing to see some proactive behavior and return to the "customer comes first" attitudes in both security and service.

Remember, if things were done correctly in the first place, and the airlines hired the right people who do not get on TV playing games with their customer's property, stealing their valuables and losing their luggage, this might all be a very moot point...but, the reality is 180 degrees different and the points are very vaild.

Let's see the airlines hire the best people to secure their planes. Let's see the pride of America (military, police or National Guard) screen the passengers instead of minimum-wage help who make less compensation and are trained less than a convenience store employee. Let's see armed Sky Marshalls on our flights. Let's keep the cockpit doors closed throughout the entire flight and let's fortify the doors to make them unbreakable (the captain's responsibility is the safety of the passengers and safety starts and ends in the cockpit...you cannot fly a plane from Seat 16B). Let's "bond" all employees who have to handle the customer's baggage and completely eliminate the financial limits on lost, damaged or stolen baggage...and make the airlines and their insurance companies responsible to pay the full compensation in seven days and not seven months...

And one other question...Since airports have been charging expensive PFC's (Passenger Facility Charge) for each person landing at the airport, how much of those billions of dollars have been allocated to airport security? Shouldn't the airports and their municipalities have to pay for the security? I personally think it is ridiculous to make the airlines have to pay for security personnel. This is the reason why one airline has better security than another. Security should be consistant and not based on which company the airline has hired. If the airports find it necessary to charge these stupid PFC's they should use this money to ensure our safety.

Remember, they have only been charging these PFC's since the early 1990's.

There is a lot wrong with our system. Now that we have experienced a tremendous tragedy, it is the best time to fix the system and operate it the way it should have been done in the first place. Let's see a better mix of intelligence, thought, proactive behavior and common sense go into the final decisions...and completely eliminate knee-jerk reactions, panic and stupidity...and rumors and gossip!

Then and only then will people have a reason to get back into the air and pump money back into the travel economy. With the gossip about eliminating carry-ons on flights, banning pre-booking seating, no curb-side check-in and everything else I have heard, we are going to create an environment where the mainstream will never get back into an airplane...and when that happens the problem will be eliminated because there will be no airline companies in business whatsoever.