[Bloody Sam Roberts]

If this is true, it is very bad.

Could we have been played like the proverbial 'fiddle'?

Imagine that 9/11 was Phase 1. They attack us with airliners that are taken over by passengers (terrorists) after take off.
As expected by Al Qaeda, we go with the first knee jerk response...we redesign and reinforce the cockpit doors.

Now comes Phase 2...trained airline pilots that are actually moles for Al Qaeda take the planes off course and because of the barricaded, reinforced doors, there isn't thing 1 we can do about it.

Except perhaps have the Air Force shoot down any such aircraft. Which in my estimation means the bad guys win either way.

In this type of scenario, if it is played properly, it would be too late for us to do anything or scramble any interceptors. Imagine such a pilot complaining of non-existent 'control surface problems'. How long do you wait to find out if it's on the up and up before fragging the plane?

[xp38]

Not a happy thread to read going into Christmas. Hope whatever is out there is stopped by whoever. Perhaps that has happened already in the many past alerts. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

[COEXERJ145]

If we have another Sept. 11th, not only will it kill the airline industry and Boeing but all of the related industries, suppliers, and vendors. It would tank the economy worse than we've ever seen.

[Mr. Mojo]

Ping

[Fledermaus]

Uh, the report says they would be pilots for foreign airlines. If they aren't flying US planes, why would their cockpit doors be better barricaded? I'd also bet foreign airlines had them already.

I'd also think the background checks for pilots, US and foreign, are quite stringent.

[Air Assault]

bump for later reading

[autoresponder]

Surface to Air missiles now deployed ringing major urban targets.

[radu]

One of many dots to connect and it's not a pretty picture. Now I need to go through the zillions of threads I've bookmarked over time to see if I can find links.

It was reported some time back that a truckload (it may have been more than one truck) of airline uniforms (maintenance; baggage; security personnel) was stolen. The truck(s?) was found but it was empty.

At that same time, airline pilots were alerted that pilot uniforms and ID badges were being stolen out of motel rooms.

Recently, the alert is given that cargo planes may be used in attacks and now this news.

Cells comprised of a pilot, co-pilot, and baggage handlers working together on cargo flights.......

Has my attention!!

[FreeAtlanta]

With automation as good as it has become, I wish all big aircraft would be fitted with tamper proof autopilot that can be activated from the ground and would force land the plan at the nearest qualified airfield.

Who knows, maybe this terrorist stuff might be the straw that gets the public to accept pilot-less airliners. The technology is available. It would eliminate human error and inhuman terrorist takeovers.

[thinking]

Pakistan airlines flys into Toronto, Toronto is 15 minutes from major targets, 30 minutes to NYC....Regular flights from Asia, now fly direct over the Arctic regions.....

[Aquinasfan]

That's why skyscrapers need anti-aircraft capability. Man them with National Guardsmen if necessary. It's a small price to pay. Maybe the insurance companies will spring for it.

[Revolting cat!]

Que sera sera,
Whatever will be, will be,
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera sera

[Indie]

I'm always locked & loaded and ready to Rock-n-Roll. We have been issued updated alerts and NBC warfare outfits that I have to maintain at all times. I predicted this stuff back when I lived in the Middle East. All they need is scrap plutonium and some TNT to make a dirty bomb or get a renegade nuke from Russia and sail it in on a boat. For biological warfare all they have to do is inject a martyr and have him sneeze in every Red Lobster salad bar from here to LA.

The above is from my best friend since Kindergarten. He is in a front line position which shall go unnamed. God bless everyone and may we all have the courage to follow through on what needs to be done if something happens.
Lock and load.

[archy]

Hey, they could even be federal employees! Or elected officials!

Can't trust any of 'em until they've been searched and probed!

-archy-/-

[A CA Guy]

Going by the past, you check and see which foreign pilots are hanging out in nudy bars the night before their flight. Those would be your probable terrorist.

[lchoro]

Saudi Arabia has arrested two Islamic suicide pilots who were preparing to fly two light aircraft into a packed British Airways (BA) jet, a British Sunday newspaper said, quoting a senior opposition politician.

The suspected suicide pilots were arrested in the last few weeks after they were found red-handed with aircraft loaded with explosives near Saudi Arabia's main airport in the capital Riyadh, The Mail on Sunday said.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/28/1072546397709.html