Can commercial airlines do enough to protect passengers from missile attacks?

Fox News.com ^ | July 20, 2014 | Eric Shawn

[Kaslin]

Every airline passenger is familiar with the security routine: take your shoes off, laptop goes in the plastic bin, remove all metal items from your pockets and place any liquids in a separate plastic bag and walk through that metal detector.

But the familiar precautions aimed at protecting airliners from possible bombs or weapons do nothing to ward off an incoming missile that can blow the jetliner out of the sky. The Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down last week has focused attention on protecting planes from potential missile strikes, which, it turns out, have taken down more than one dozen airliners in aviation history.

One answer could be "Sky Shield," a new Israeli-manufactured system that officials say successfully protected a test El Al Airlines Boeing 737 in live-fire missile tests.

[TBP]

These jerks knew exactly what they were shooting.

[Timber Rattler]

When terrorists have access to SAMs what part of the sky is not an active combat zone?

Judge for yourself...

Astounding map of the airspace over Ukraine after #MH17 was downed:

[null and void]

See post #19, and judge for yourself...

[FlJoePa]

Folks from Montoursville, PA might add Long Island to the list of places to avoid as well. Just sayin’...

[maine-iac7]

BINGO

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

TWA 800 wasn’t over a “war zone”.

[Timber Rattler]

When was the last time that happened?

[null and void]

Talk about a 9/10 mentality! I’m disappointed in you.

[Timber Rattler]

A lot of this country’s security excesses like the Patriot Act and TSA have come from bureaucrats in DC conference rooms dreaming up ways in which we *might* be attacked, which have never come to pass. So call me extremely skeptical whenever I see new panic and proposed security measures from clueless government hacks these days.

[null and void]

So you agree that there is no need to control the border?

[Timber Rattler]

No, I didn’t say that.

[Gritty]

Perhaps the airlines that insist on flying over dangerous territory containing radar guided missiles could hire some Wild Weasels to run interference for them?

It would be cheaper than losing another Boeing 777 and years of lawsuits and payouts.