[TriLUG] OT: What really scares me about this terrorist situation

[Donald Ball]

On Wed, 12 Sep 2001, Rodent of Unusual Size wrote:

> * On 2001-09-12 at 01:21,
>   Rev. Christian J Hedemark <chris at yonderway.com> excited the electrons to say:
> >
> > Also I believe there needs to be more security to the cockpit.  Once the
> > pilots are in the cockpit, a secure door should lock.  No matter what the
> > terrorists do in the passenger compartment, the pilots should get the plane
> > immediately into airspace where ground damage can be kept to a minimum (like
> > over water or a rural area).  Once the terrorist pull their weapons it is a
> > given everyone on board is going to die.
>
> I do not think that will work.  Fine, make the flight deck impervious.
> Then the perps will just start shooting pax, one every ten seconds,
> until the door is unlocked.  I think it would take a hardened ICBM-rated
> missileer to be able to stand up to that kind of situation.

so once closed, make the door unopenable until certain conditions occur -
say, the airplane stops moving. terrorists can't terrorize a physical
mechanism like that. your risk then is that something might happen to
disable the pilots, but that's why there are at least two, right? hell,
make it three while you're at it and toss in a nurse for good measure. the
terrorists can still coerce the pilots into landing the plane, but they
can't take over and fly it into a skyscraper. or a naval base. or a
nuclear power plant.

- donald