Originally Posted by boondoggie

I wrote about this in my blog, and I'm predicting that we're going to see this on a wide scale as a result of 8/10.

A few preliminaries:

1) The current situation can't hold. The airlines won't be able to handle the loss of business if the government dissallows any hand luggage in the cabin. Yes, that's only in London, but if the threat is as real as they say, then the only solution is to extend the ban in the UK to everywhere. A day later they had arrests all over Italy "in connection with" the UK plot. Eventually we'll be stripped of our ability to bring anything into the cabin, and that's when people will have had enough of flying.

2) Even if they do that, the terrorists can just go to the next step. The liquid explosives that wouldn't have been detectable in a sports drink bottle wouldn't have been detectable in the hold either. Or the terrorists will just implant the explosives under their skin.

3) No matter what physical security the airlines impose, someone willing to kill themselves to bring down a plane can probably do it.

The only solution is to keep the terrorists off the plane. That's going to require some sort of background check/licensing procedure to make it safe. The authorities are going to have to investigate air travellers and find out if they are a risk. Right now, anyone with money and an id can buy an airplane ticket. That just can't continue.

That's a horrible situation, but can anyone think of another solution?