Aren't you guys being a little short-sighted here?

The events of Sept. 11th had nothing to do with checked baggage - that's true.

But, before 9/11, hijackings had nothing to do with crashing planes into buildings. We used to be like "Hey, anyone can take over this plane, and we won't do anything to stop it. We'll just fly with them to Cuba for a couple days." Who ever thought that someone would crash a plane into a building instead of taking us on a Havana joyride?

Now, we've more or less closed up that loophole that would allow people to hijack planes. Better cockpit doors and pissed off passengers will probably neutralize that threat.

But, there is a huge open door in the system whereby anyone can walk up with a bomb, check it and walk away. Since boarding passes and baggage tickets clearly say whether a bag will be matched with the passenger or not, a terrorist would know immediately whether his bomb would make it. If it wouldn't he could get it back and try again. If it does (which is more likely) boom - there goes another plane.

We have always seen that each time you plug one hole, another one opens up. This bags not being screened hole is huge, well publicized and easy to exploit. Meanwhile, we have people who have declared war on all Americans. And, while no one ever imagined that terrorist would crash planes into buildings, people have put bombs on planes before. That Lockerbie thing is still going on.

On the cost/benefit analysis - in the link I posted in the forum I linked to above - it mentioned that the system at JFK's terminal 1 has a capacity of 12 bags per minute per scanner, or 720 per hour. That's 4.8 times more capacity than what FWAAA said (150 bags/hr) the system would have. Assuming his estimate of $5B is 4.8 times too high, that means it would cost (ultra-conservatively) about $2B for the equipment. About 70 million people traveled last month. A $5 surcharge for 6 months would more than pay for the system.

That's the cost side. On the benefit side, this could prevent bombs from blowing up planes. What are the costs of that? Huge - the cost of the aircraft, the cost of the cargo, the cost of the passengers (both in terms of being alive and the monetary cost of lost productivity, insurance, etc.) and their luggage, the cost of damage to whatever is on the ground where the plane crashes, the cost of the investigation, the cost of a trial, the cost of lost ticket sales from people who are even more afraid to fly... I can't put a figure on it, but I'm sure every American would chip in a few dollars to avoid this. Over $1B was collected after 9/11 to give to the victim's families.

d

(edited to add One final note - the Gore commission found that delays from implementing PPBM would average to be about 1 minute per flight. That's right, one whole minute. Don't forget that study was conducted several years ago, before airline schedules were cut by 20+%.

[This message has been edited by Doppy (edited 11-09-2001).]