All US planes being searched

Fox News Cable | Oct 17, 2003

[TomGuy]

Box cutters, bleach found in 2 packages on Southwest Airlines plane.

All commercial planes in US currently being searched.

developing............

[No Blue States]

Good, its a false alarm.

the democrats are deeply saddened.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

The whole point post 9/11 is if the cockpit door opens, all the passengers are as good as dead anyway.

You don't think a pilot would be torn apart inside hearing the death screams of passengers behind the door with safely keeps him from harm, even though the alternative is just as bad? Or that an F-15 pilot wouldn't feel horrible about shooting down a plane, killing 200 but saving 3000? Just because I knew my mother was going to die in 1993 doesn't mean it didn't rip my heart out.

[null and void]

Yup. About the best they can do is dump all fuel and "hard land" dry.

They can pick a more or less flat spot, no fuel - no fire more survivors.

[Rutles4Ever]

Unless the items were placed on board after the flight landed and before the maintenance folks found them... So the plane landed, and a passenger went to the bathroom and created these packages out of thin air before leaving? I would think that the packages would have to get through some security point no matter when they're found...

[Labyrinthos]

The true flaw in the proposal is that in our freewheeling tort law system, a single security breach resulting in the loss of an aircraft could essentially bankrupt the airline.

Not necessarily, and even if it did so what? Think about the number of airlines that are currently operating in bankruptcy. If anything, the ability to avoid civil liability by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy is even more of an incentive to cut corners on security.

[TomGuy]

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Are they going to put household cleaners on the banned list for all passenger carriers... along with guns and golf clubs?

[marktuoni]

Profiling...

Any one wearing an anti-Bush, pro Dem t-shirt would be the first ones I'd profile...followed closely by anyone with media credentials!

[petercooper]

most of the airlines that are currently operating in bankruptcy are doing so b/c the unions have bled them dry

[berkeleybeej]

and a passenger went to the bathroom and created these packages out of thin air before leaving?

It doesn't necessarily have to be a passenger...could be ground crew personnel.

But more will be revealed in the fullness of time...

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

So a highjacker disables the front half. The back half won't stop from coming forward.

It doesn't seem all that difficult to block the corridor that separates coach from first class on the smaller planes. A food cart with a couple of bodies behind it, and a hijacker with a spray bottle full of disabling bleach/ammonia mixture just waiting for someone to try to leap over it.

I'm not saying these things are probable, or likely. Only that it's folly to assume they're impossible. I personally believe that it's still quite possible to hijack a plane and crash it, even with current screening levels and passenger awareness. It just might not happen for several years. It will be a combination of complacence, a sparsely-populated flight, a well-rehearsed hijacking team, and picking the right type of plane and flight path.

Maybe I'm being pessimistic. But overconfidence is always, always worse when it comes to security.

[TomGuy]

[kancel]

>>Would urine have enough ammonia in it to cause a reaction with the bleach? <<

Yes!!!

I know from experience. When we moved to Alaska we arrived in our new home about two days before the well was to be dug. My stepmom (nicknamed "Mrs TidyBowl Clean" by my dad) decided that we needed some sort of sanitary toilet area and so stuck a bucket of bleach in the bathroom.

I was the first to use our makeshift toilet.I had barely started when all of a sudden I couldn't breath and my eyes were burning. It was the most horrible thing I have ever experienced .

[Charlotte Corday]

even though the alternative is just as bad?

It's dreadful to contemplate, but depending upon where the hijacker points the airplane the alternative would not be just as bad, but far far worse.

[null and void]

OK, so a ground crew person stages the improvised weapons on the plane. His/her active cohorts take the next flight on that plane.

Same final results as if they smuggled the items past the TSA in hollowed out Korans.

It just requires a little more planning. Not a show stopper for a determined enemy...

[muskogee]

You are profiling (I like it).

[TomGuy]

I personally believe that it's still quite possible to hijack a plane and crash it, even with current screening levels and passenger awareness.

That old saying: Where there's a will, there's a way.

As a Nation, we've become complacent again.

[lelio]

I was the first to use our makeshift toilet.I had barely started when all of a sudden I couldn't breath and my eyes were burning. It was the most horrible thing I have ever experienced .

Who says FR isn't full of useful information? ;)

[null and void]

Why the box cutters?

Couldn't they just unscrew the caps?

Sounds like someone is sending a message...

[Dog]

Stock Market fell on word of this ......but is rebounding now..