squeakr, I've been meaning to do just that but with one thing or another, just have not found the time yet. I'll make a stab at it, this weekend for the posts in this thread at least.

great le tme kmnow if I cna help!

One suggesion I saw o n an airlien board was that pilot andcrew ID's should change format NOW so that every airline employee woul d have a new badge. This would prevent anyone w/ stolen badges of a few weeks /months ago from using them.

My piggyback on that suggestion is why aren't there badge changes say every 3-6 months? Jus tlike you shoul dchange your computer passwords every so often, or movie theatres change ticket colors each day - so should ID change color/look every so often to help foil fake ID's.

Here's a first draft compilation of the ideas expressed in this thread. Let me say that many Fters have contributed to this discussion and in similar ones in other forums, and that I regret that I am not able to acknowledge the originators of the suggestions since often several Fters have made the same or very similar suggestion. I do not in any way claim any credit for the ideas.

Many of these ideas seem to have already been implemented, or are being considered by the authorities. Others seem to have been implemented, and have been dropped (kiosk check-in, curbside check in to be allowed again).

A. Before Boarding

- No remote check-in
- Check passenger names vs. database of terroists
- Better trained/more professional security personnel
- Incentive bonuses for finding weapons by security
- Check-in only with verified ID
- Security check-in at the gate
- Security check for connections
- Only ticketed passengers allowed to proceed to gates
- Better screening during hire and better security checking of ground staff prior to entering airport
- Change airport security badges frequently

B. In the air

- Armed air or sky marshals on domestic flights and arriving international flights
- Self defense training for the crew
- Secure cockpits/reinforced doors/double doors
- Take control away from a pilot in the event of a hijacking via auto-pilot landings or ground control over-rides
- Armed pilots
- Resistence to be the new standard response to hijacking
- Pilots to de-pressurize passenger cabins if hijacked

I ran into a guy whose wife was a CO FA until she took a LOA a couple of weeks ago. He told me that she was flying out of Houston a week or so after the attacks and related the following story:

When she and the other FAs were readying the plane for departure, the Captain called the entire staff to the front of the plane. He said, in substance, that if he heard anything more than glasses clinking together in the back that he would take the plane into a sharp bank and thereby depressurize the plane. The FAs revolted and got a supervisor, who said that they could either go on the flight or be fired.

The guy didn't know what kind of plane this was.

Is this possible? I guess the idea was that a sharp bank would somehow compromise the door seals and depressurize the plane.

Of course, this is a second-hand story.

Comments?

Mike

Probably a misunderstanding. What he probably said was "if he heard anything more than glasses clinking together in the back that he would take the plane into a sharp bank and then depressurize the plane."

[edited to add]

I wouldn't want to be on that flight either! I hope the captain also told the passengers of his plan. That would be like a burglar alarm that pulls the trigger of an M-16. False alarms shouldn't be fatal as they are much more common than true alarms.

Pilots who overreact and end up injuring or killing their passengers for a false alarm will do much more damage to the public's desire to fly than a hijacking.

[This message has been edited by JS (edited 10-08-2001).]

Add to "Before Boarding":
POSITIVE MATCHING OF BAGS WITH PAX!