Question about the FAA

[David R.]

If Airforce One was a target, it was in Florida at the time of the hijackings, where Bush was taking classes. When it took off to not go to Washington, it was escorted by two F-16. A commercial jet would not have been able to get anywhere near it. Watching the coverage, Peter Jennings was very critical of Bush for not going to the Capital and for waiting so long to make a statement. I agree. -David R.

[meccajay]

Peter Jennings needs to check himself. The Pres was only listening to the advice of the Secret Service-Its there job. In fact he actually decided later on to NOT take there strong advice to move to Norad underground compound and return to Washington.

[Bonafide]

[quote]Originally posted by dansouth@yahoo.com: [b] Wouldn't a far less costly and more elegant approach be to install a secure door on the pilot's cabin of each jetliner? Do we really want fighter jets buzzing our cities? C'mon![/b][/quote] They have had discussions about this in the past, Many cockpit doors have push button codes to get in but most can be 'slammed' thorugh with relative ease. This is not a fault of the design, but rather a neccessity. The door cannot be made of impenentrable material because of the pressure inside the plane. I don't understand it enough to explain it to you but I watched a entire segment on it last night.

[WFTurner]

>>The door cannot be made of impenentrable material because of the pressure inside the plane. I don't understand it enough to explain it to you but I watched a entire segment on it last night.<< Wish I'd been watching that. The wife and I we're discussing this last night. The problem with putting a crew in a "bank safe" like environment. What happens to the plane and passengers if there are situations... hell who knows what.. where they passout or incapacitated in some way? Are the times coming where we're looking at troops on planes.. something in that nature. Seems awful intrusive based on the life we're used to living. ------------------ William F. Turner Songwriter [url=http://www.csonline.net/wfturner/index.html]turnermusic[/url]

[Nika]

Dan/David, Thank you for the advice. Fortunately I'm in Fort Wayne Indiana, and there are no planes that leave here with more than 50 people. This is not quite O'hare or LAX, so I think we'll have an easier time than most. We must be careful about giving excess time as there is talk of no carryone baggage. I'll be traveling with an 8 month old, and if I can't bring a diaper bag, baby food, toys, or anything else to entertain him it could be a traumatic experience - 12 hours from hitting the airport to touching down. We need to be smart and conservative, but within reason I think. Nika.

[Chip McDonald]

[quote]Originally posted by meccajay: [b]Peter Jennings needs to check himself. The Pres was only listening to the advice of the Secret Service-Its there job. In fact he actually decided later on to NOT take there strong advice to move to Norad underground compound and return to Washington. [/b][/quote] No, it's *his job* as a *leader* to immediately LEAD. It was weird that it took so long; and his usual dry delivery of reading scripted lines fell flat. Regardless, it could have been arranged for him to speak on AF1 and have it broadcast from there. What's a concern is that they're hiding *Cheney* right now apparently. Air Force-1 couldn't be threatened by another jumbo jet - the pilot would be too good, and the other plane would have shown up on radar, and it's always escorted by fighters. Never a target UNLESS... They have reason to fear nuclear weapons. Great. ------------------ [b]New and Improved Music Soon:[/b] http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald

[Master Zap]

Somtimes I get the feeling that US airport security is much more for show and for avoiding liability (isn't everything in the US about avoiding liability!?) than real honest-to-god security. If you fly from Sweden you have to fill in this green visa wavier form thingy, and it - honest to god - has x-in squares for if I plan to murder the president, do terrorist activity, and whatnot. Like gee, if I did, would I x the square!?! Also that question "did you pack your bag yourself / leave unattended" isn't really a "security" question, it's if you are caught w. drugs you cant say someone else put it in there.... [quote] I remember when I started flying, they would ask about your bags and I made some stupid joke. They pulled me aside and went through everything. [/quote] I did the same once... dumb move. And Oh I went through a security check in a US airport and they had a HUGE SIGN, and I mean royally HUGE above the 5-odd lanes of security counters going "PLEASE - NO JOKES". Its a very good idea not to joke about stuff unless you get off on cavity searches [img]http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif[/img] Actually once I felt really good about security, although it was awkward... I was coming home from the compnays germany office. In my carryon (someone told me I should put this in the carryon) was an ancient external CD-ROM drive GIVEN to me by the hardware guy to use on my Sampler (it was a 2x with caddy who was standing on his trashpile, perfect for my Kurzweil and ASR-X!). I got dragged into a separate room TWICE on that flight (on each connecting flight) where they used a techy looking dustbuster do see if I had explosives in the CD-ROM. I actually thanked them for that and told them in my really bad german how I appreciated the security concern. /Z