docmonkey

A suicide pact? Please.

I don't know where you're from, but in the state of Washington, responding to bomb threats is probably one of the least dangerous aspects of LEOs/Fire Rescue jobs because they're almost always false. Were you talking about LEOs/Fire Rescue in Fallujah? If so, I can see how that might be a suicide pact.

goalie

yup-acceptable losses by the bean (or int his case, body) counters.

docmonkey

I really doubt lives are being gambled if you're hypothetical involves a standard phoned-in bomb threat. What you are doing is wasting people's time with all of these overblown reactions to unsubstantiated threats.

Wally Bird

I understand the LE position on this, and would expect it. I can think of only one scenario where a bomb threat against an airliner might be real; and it doesn't involve a specific flight. (No, I'm not going to elaborate).

For everything else, why would a bomber (terrorist or otherwise) go to the effort, difficulty and danger of planting a bomb and then give a warning ? I'm talking about unsubstantiated (phone call, note) threats; if the warning contains more details and/or credible reasons for giving the warning, then act on it.

Otherwise it's a HOAX, and they usually come in batches. Mentally-unbalanced copycats; I'm surprised there haven't been any since yesterday. Yet.

law dawg

You want to get people away from the potential bomb, not send people in. Or, not send them in until the primary job of clearing civilians is done.

Get the people out, have them run/trot/walk/whatever to a nearby bus (but not too near) and then, once you have an idea of what's going on send in the pros.

All the EOD techs in the world are going to be useless, for the most part, on a crammed airplane. And they should wait to start shuttling people out until the arrive - they should do that immediately, if possible.

Fredd

I agree. It sounds too much like a CYA exercise. With all of the expertise and funds spent and so on, nobody can convince me that there's no way to have some kind of prompt emergency deplaning of the passengers onboard. Are the "authorities" waiting for "higher authority" to make a decision? There are enough police resources on very short call to establish some kind of perimeter (I think that's what the experts call it) and get the passengers off the darned plane.

This is Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, not Canyonlands Field in Moab Utah, although maybe they'd show more sense in Moab!

http://www.moab-utah.com/moabairport/

law dawg

I 100% understand your reasoning, I just think that's an incredibly tough call to make.

jonesing

Just interjecting for a sec....

FWIW reports are saying the a$$clown that made the bomb threat did so because he missed the flight.

Fredd

Hoax or no hoax, once it's deemed appropriate or imperative for the plane to return and land, the passengers should be evacuated from it immediately and taken into custody. If it's "an incredibly tough call" to decide what to do with passengers sitting on the tarmac in a plane with a suspected bomb on board, I hate to think how the really tough calls will be handled.

law dawg

Hmm, that's not my point. I said I think they should have been taken off. I was stating that it would be incredibly tough to ignore a bomb threat even if you were 99% sure it was a hoax. I couldn't and wouldn't do it. Others say they would.

Please go back and re-read my posts.

Fredd

Fair enough and I apologize for misreading your post.

My point is that so-called "incredibly tough calls" all too often result in CYA exercises and that seems obvious when passengers are forced to sit on a plane that's already landed due to a bomb threat, hoax or not.

What was the point of having the plane land if the passengers aren't going to be evacuated as soon as possible?

Superguy

Then why when something that is thought to be a been found at a checkpoint that TSA dumps the terminal, bringing people RIGHT PAST the bomb? Don't have time to find the link, but I believe it was discussed a few weeks ago when a terminal was dumped at LAX.

Superguy

Idiot. Did they really think they would let him on the plane AFTER he made the threat?

docmonkey

So what if you received a phone call in the middle of the night from a teenage voice saying there was a bomb in you garage. Would you wake up the whole family and drag them out of the house? Assuming the prank caller wasn't caught, what about on the second night a few weeks later? On the third, fourth and fifth nights the following month? Ten times per year?

I see you want to be careful, but at some point we have to draw the line and recognize that risks are everywhere. Why should we give so much power over our lives to an anonymous phone caller who does not substantiate his threat with any proof, while at the same time we ignore much greater risks all around us?

Obviously, if we were living in a society where things were blowing up all the time we'd have to look at things differently, but it just doesn't seem worth the worry in our safe society.

Superguy

Nope. I'd know it was fake because I don't have a garage.