Some people believe that, if we allowed planes to fly without elaborate security procedures, the world would come to an end. Apparently the sensible people of New Zealand don't share that view. On September 26, I flew from Christchurch to Queenstown, two cities on New Zealand's South Island, 216 miles apart. I went to the Christchurch Airport, checked in for the flight to Queenstown and was told to head to Gate 9. I noticed that only passengers heading to Gates 1-5 had to pass through any security. The other gates, all for domestic flights, were completely security-free. When it was time to board my flight to Queenstown, we simply walked out to the plane and got on board. No security of any kind. And this goes on day after day without any kind of problem! Wouldn't it be nice if the U.S. could do the same thing?

Bruce

It would be nice, but I still remember 9/11. So our reality is much different from our fantasies.

Land of the free and home of the brave.

And I remember the Civil War. Should we still have martial law and suspension of habeas corpus? When do we get back to normal?

Bruce

Passenger screening for weapons in the U.S. dates back another 4 decades to when a number of malcontents opted for layovers in Havana.

What about 9/11 makes you so scared? What an over-used, pathetic excuse 9/11 has become.

Some airlines still let pax into the flight deck while the plane is in flight. @:-)

I did that on the Concorde! (Pre-9/11/01, of course.)

Bruce

Maybe the US should try no security for a year and see what happens. It would be quite an experiment. Which politician do you think would take this idea on? Hillary Clinton, maybe?

I never got a Concorde ride.

Of course, even if someone were inspired to hijack a plane from ZQN or CHC... where would they go??!! The "West Island" is too bloody far away and nobody wants to go there anyway.

Last time I was able to do that was in 2005 on OS returning from VIE to YUL, somewhere above Tadoussac. As a non-North American carrier, it remains pilot's discretion.

Of course, the late-evening flight YYZ-YUL all in the jumpseat of a 330 in August 2001 was very memorable (top of descent is at Kingston, and you can already see the lights of Montreal!) as was the same experience BOS-YUL a few years earlier in a CRJ. Oh well... no more of that, unfortunately.

We can do this, but I think it also has to be in conjunction with the Administration scaling back its rhetoric on "terror".

The rhetoric alone leads to two related, but dissimilar results:

1) Wannabe copycat "terrorists" are motivated to exploit what they see as an obvious source of fear, despite not having the resources to plan or implement their desires.

and 2), Law enforcement is held to a standard that they cannot meet, so they sometimes panic when confronted by anything outside their comfort range.

The last six years have been badly mishandled. We've known about the Copycat Effect for a long time, but for political reasons have ignored it when it comes to "terror".

We have met the enemy, and he is us.

I saw it twice about four weeks ago on Austral on the Trelew-Calafate and Ushuaia to Rio Gallegos routes. Both times on an MD-80. Of course, since we flew over an enormous glacier on approach into Calafate, everyone was trying to snap all kind of pictures.

I still remember 9/11. So what's you point?

By "our reality" I'm not understanding who you are referring to. Certainly not myself, because I harbor no such baseless fear about the particular acts carried on that tragic, horrible day having anything to with possible future attacks in some other, possible worlds.