[JohnHuang2]

Quote of the Day by deadhead

[Demidog]

What's her problem? This is all for your own good. Swallow it all and stop complaining.

[Drammach]

She's got it right. I won't fly, if it means giving up my rights.

Let the Airlines go bankrupt, for all I care.

[Cobra64]

I've been a business/software consultant for over 12 years. I've flown to almost every major airport in the United States, several in Canada, two in the UK, four in South America, and three in Europe. One year I booked over 300,000 miles.

I've been posting on this site concerning airport security, have written several letters to the FBI... The gov't still doesn't have a clue. For that matter, the passengers still have their heads up their collective asses.

Let's do the numbers; if it takes 1.5 hours to get to an airport, wait 4.0 hours to go through security, 2.5 hours "wheels up time," .25 hours taxiing time, .25 hours deplaning time, .25 hours for limo pickup, 1.5 hours limo delivery time to domicile... that's a lot of time. When you factor time to/from rental car services that's another collective 1 hour.

The next time I have to go to Pittsburgh, PA, I will drive and write off $.33/mile.

Farther than that, I'll spend the week-end in said city.

I'm fed up with the entire airline industry and their immigrant, illiterate, donut-eating, sloppy "support staff," condoned by the airlines' independent contractors and *mindless* FAA regs.

My brother has been building private heliports all over the World since 1976. To this day, he is confides his frustration towards the bewildering array of morons in the FAA. . Oh Well... signs of the times.

IMOHO

[nolu chan]

I want it back. It was a silver charm from Aspen in the shape of a bullet with a great deal of sentimental value. But in a strange coincidence, a few hours later, it was missing from the Olympic security box of confiscated loot. It's probably already wrapped.

This reminds me of an incident on an overseas military base where fresh fruits were not allowed on a plane going to the States. A lady had a cake with fruit on top. It was OK, the fruit had been cooked with the cake. But a military customs inspector confiscated the cake in error. The fun began when the plane developed mechanical difficulty and the passengers deboarded. The lady came back for her cake and found the customs inspector chowing down.

[Neanderthal]

"As long as the airlines insist on going through the manifestly absurd exercise of treating all passengers the same in an obscure desire to impress The New York Times editorial page . . . "

Is this correct? I sure as hell hope that they are searching the Arabs' checked baggage for bombs . . .

[hmc48]

I am amazed at all the so-called "security improvements" since 9-11. As an airline employee, I can tell you with certainty that the biggest security problems are the people who have access to the airplanes from the inside. Catering employees, mechanics, baggage loaders, fuelers, etc., all have an unlimited means of sabatoging an airplane. It fact, I have heard from airline sources that on one of the hijacked planes of 9-11, the box cutters were strapped underneath the passegner seats, indicating that it was an inside job. I don't hear any cries of increased security for those who have access to the planes. Background checks aren't going to eliminate these threats. And as for "reinforced cockpit doors".....what happens when a crewmember has to leave to go to the lavatory????? Bottom line is, if these murderers want to use an airplane and its passengers as a weapon, they will find a way.

[Revelation 911]

some enterprising capitalist might suggest we have a UPS booth in tandem with the "security check", so you can mail those 24k expensive (but deadly)nail clippers, and offensive jewelry home. That'd make sense though.

[LARoss]

Time to let our FReeping voices be heard? I did my part:

Email to Spokane Airport:

I am writing to express concern over published reports of theft by security personnel in your airport. In the fragile public relations environment airlines face, it would seem wise to avoid such incidents, and to work diligently to rectify them when they do occur. Certainly in the case within the past week of the silver charm taken from Ann Coulter, a nationally syndicated columnist, I would think you would want to do everything possible to avoid damaging the public perception of your airport.

Please do the right thing. Make sure Ms. Coulter's property is returned to her, or punish the individuals involved. Such an act of integrity would go a long way toward rebuilding your good faith relationship with the American people.

Prove us wrong about you. Thank you for your time.

Respectfully yours,
L. Ross
Pennsylvania

Here's the email address if you're interested: twoodard@spokaneairports.net

[gcruse]

Gee whiz, Annie.  You reckon?  I tell you what, you scratch
a statist and you get a libertarian every time.  How about folx
like you sending the Feds into back yards to confiscate
vegetation the homeowner may be growing for his
own use?

And they don't just stop at removing the vegetation.
There's a good chance the owner will go to jail.

The next time you write a column bashing libertarians,
Annie, remember about the 'fascists' at the airport who are
protecting you ass from being hijacked, then have a
thought for the patrons at California state-legal
medical marijuana clinics sent to jail for seeking
relief from their physical ailments.

[jojonomo55]

Let me get this straight. Her 'jewelry' is a bullet strapped to a chain? And that is sentimental?

Ok. Not exactly the Chritsmas gift that I will be looking for for my loved ones this year.

[Wright is right!]

"They still have emergency exit doors that can be opened during flight, causing the plane to crash."

Uh, no, Ann, they do NOT. The air pressure differential between the cabin and the outside prevents this. And even IF someone COULD get the exit door to open, it would NOT cause a crash. It would cause a decompression in the cabin which would make the pax mighty uncomfortable until the pilot descended to a more breathable altitude. Which is why the aircraft have oxy masks.

I just hate it when an otherwise-credible writer self-destructs with wild assertions that have no basis in fact. I also have a problemo with Ann's declaration that, somehow, a silver bullet is a "sentimental item." Did she have a thing with the Lone Ranger or something?

And finally - to the white-knuckler who said he was a-skeered to death to look out the right window and see another aircraft "a few HUNDRED yards away lined up to land on the SAME runway at DIA..." Sorry, buddy, but that other a/c was on final for a PARALLEL runway. DIA's parallels are pretty closely spaced. ATC had that one well in hand.

I just love it when people who don't know a darn thing about aviation choose to write about ... aviation.

Michael