So WTF does not letting you get out of seat in last hour of a flight accomplish?

[Statistical]

I mean I put up with most of the security BS because at least it makes logical sense.
shoes xray = shoes have large volume and could conceal a bomb.
laptops out of bag = clear xray pic and large volume
limit liquids = limit liquid explosives which look like liquids

now none of this is foolproof. someone could combine multiple small liquids in bathroom to make larger bomb. Someone could design a laptop bomb that on xray looks like normal laptop. but it at least involves logic.

But staying in your seats in the last hour? Really?

Here is an idea. Won't they just blow up the plane 1:05 before landing? WTF!

I have to fly for my job and this is just downright stupid.

[MercutioATC]

1. It's the typical government "Do SOMETHING" mentality.

...even if it makes absolutely no sense.


The really scary part? Some government desk jockey just guaranteed his performance bonus by dreaming up this shit.

[MorningGlow]

2. Lip service, nothing more

If the gov't did nothing, they'd be accused of enabling the terra-ists. But yes, this sort of knee-jerk reaction is ridiculous.

[HopeHoops]

3. They just want to make sure that pants catch fire IN the seats.

You can't have pants catching fire just anywhere you know.

[pipi_k]

31. speaking of pants on fire...

I really had to laugh when I heard the report on how calm the guy was, even when he was sitting there and his pants were blazing away.

You know...like it happens to him every day...


:7

[HopeHoops]

33. You never know! Maybe he is a Republican!

"Liar, liar, pants on fire!" - sums up Republicans pretty well, eh?

[ipaint]

4. Trained compliance without question.

People are easier to control that way.

[notesdev]

5. It covers some bureaucrat's ass

while making it less and less likely I will ever get on an airplane and subject myself to this foolishness, ever again.

[Mz Pip]

6. Was this guy out of his seat?

I can't figure out why the last hour of a plane ride is any different than the hour in the middle.

Seems like having more explosive sniffing dogs at the airports would be a better way to prevent events like this.

Or how about giving a really really really good search to people who are on the terror list.

[jaxx]

16. I read that he spent 20 mins in the bathroom

before coming back to his seat and covering up with a blanket and starting the fire.

[KamaAina]

29. So why not just have the bathroom doors open automatically after 5 or 10 minutes?

:shrug:

[Goldstein1984]

7. Security is largely illusion

It's always one step behind the bad guys:

The bad guys use box cutters, then we ban knives.
The bad guys try to sneak explosives onboard in bottles, then we ban liquids in large containers.
The bad guys to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb, then we start x-raying shoes.
A few days ago, a bad guy tried to blow up a plane with exploding underwear, now...?

I have to fly a lot for my job too, but because of the inconvenience, I reduced my travel budget by half, from weekly to monthly trips (sold it to the corporate president as "cost savings.") During the news segment on the exploding underwear, there was mention of increased security measures in the near future, and my wife and I looked at each other an both said, "Looks like we won't be flying unless we can't help it."

[JohnnyLib2]

8. Went through this around the Salt Lake City Olympics

as well as around DC in the past. Bothersome rule, perhaps aimed at stopping a bad-guy rush at the crew's cabin?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. My question: Why won't a terrorist just detonate his device sitting down?

It's jus' so ridiculous.

[iamjoy]

10. I Don't Get It Either

I kind of understand why they restrict cabin movement 20 minutes after take off from and 20 minutes before landing at National Airport. Presumably, if there is an attempted hijacking, that allows sufficient time to take care of any threat to the White House, the Capitol building or any other national monument. But, if some one's intent is to blow up a plan, why does it matter when in the flight it is done?

I have some ideas to keep all of us safe when we fly:
1) Every piece of checked luggage should be meticulously inspected by hand. As a result, all passengers must arrive at the airport four hours before flight.
2) No more carry on bags. No purses, no laptops, no diaper bags.
3) To compensate for the above, all passengers will be offered an opportunity to purchase adult and child diapers at the gate. Passengers wishing to use these must put them on prior to boarding.
4) Cabin movement will restricted for the entire flight - regardless of length.
5) To ensure the above, when the plane is in motion, shackles will emerge from seats to restrain passengers at wrists and ankles. These shackles will automatically open when the plane is at the gate.

for those of you who didn't pick up on it, my "ideas" are meant to be tongue-in-cheek. I'm sure most regular DUers realize this, but just in case any TSA of DHS folks are trolling, I don't want it taken seriously, ok?

[a la izquierda]

17. When you fly from Mexico to the US...

everything you bring on the plane is hand-inspected. When you get to the airport, before even getting your boarding pass, your luggage will be inspected. Then, you pass through security with your carryons. Before boarding, your carryons are thoroughly inspected.
Result: I feel safe flying out of Mexico.

[MineralMan]

11. It's just a typical bureaucratic response to a problem.

Someone who has come face to face with the Peter Principle is trying to come up with some rule or another to make him/herself feel some sense of accomplishment and to have something to put into a regulation.

It's that simple.

[bik0]

12. As a plane lands it is over the population center where more damage will occur if it blows up.

So staying in your seat will force the terrorist to blow up the plane over open water or rural areas which will save lives. Also - the plane took the polar route so it was coming in over Canada and was only over the U.S. briefly as it approached Detroit. Staying in your seat would foil that part of the plan if the plan was to detonate over the U.S.

[iamjoy]

20. That's True Sometimes

Sure, if it is a flight from one continent to another, or even between the East and West coast of North America, that may be true. If the flight is from say, Miami to Boston it may be over highly populated areas the entire time. I can allow the point that the lower the altitude of the plane the more likely it is that a catastrophic event in the air will cause damage or casualties on the ground. even so, it seems to me that a restriction like this is going to inconvenience passengers in gross disproportion to its ability to thwart terrorists.

[bik0]

13. As a plane lands it is over the population center where more damage will occur if it blows up.

So staying in your seat will force the terrorist to blow up the plane over open water or rural areas which will save lives. Also - the plane took the polar route so it was coming in over Canada and was only over the U.S. briefly as it approached Detroit. Staying in your seat would foil that part of the plan if the plan was to detonate over the U.S.

[moondust]

40. Wow. Somebody with a brain.

They're obviously reacting to the Northwest guy who was in the rest room for a long time mixing up his explosives immediately prior to the attempted detonation. It is indeed about not permitting access to a stash, mixing, and detonating over population centers at lower altitudes where the destruction would certainly be greater.

[rucky]

14. It's harder to light your pants on fire from a seated position.

Trust me on this one.

[bik0]

15. The terrorist spent 20 minutes in the bathroom assembling his bomb

[donco6]

19. How about a rule that says you can't be in the bathroom for 20 mins?

THAT I could support wholeheartedly!

[MercutioATC]

25. How about preventing people with explosives from boarding airplanes?

I realize it's a wild idea, but I'm gonna throw it out there.

[donco6]

35. Well, if you're gonna be all logical and stuff, sure.

But what's the fun in that?

[Way2go]

18. Teaches you to obey authority ... for your security. nt

[Fuzz]

21. Moist seats

[live love laugh]

26. LOL nt

[HereSince1628]

22. I wondered about this too, although it is at some level a horse-left-the-barn reaction

that looks like a c.y.a. can it be justified?

Protection of flights from terrorists must be multi-layered because no single layer of protection is perfect. Because of the way joint probability works, the likelihood of multiple random failures of multiple mostly effective protection mechanisms against reasonably concieveable risks becomes small very quickly (of course, if you are a Dick Cheney type unless the risk is negative you aren't satisfied).

A number of recent studies suggest that for a number of reasons terrorist acts are about media attention. A plane downed over land, near an airport--which means near a large city--is going to get a lot of media attention with lots and lots of visuals. It may be that a terrorist's motivation for media coverage may increase the risk of a terrorist to attack in the last hour of a flight. Is an attack assembled in the last hour of a flight from objects that penetrated previous layers of protection a legitimate concieveable risk? Having been attempted, it is now. So some defense must be developed for this contingency.

If you assume that a terrorist would assemble/arm their device out of their seat (as in the lavatory) just shortly before using it, then being stuck in the seat would prevent that. True, a determined terrorist would obviously attempt to assemble or arm the device while seated (mixing up travelers so they can't anticipate sitting with co-conspirators helps prevent collaboration in covering up such activity. Last minute seat assignments that shuffle travelling companions are used on US domestic flights.).

A terrorist that uses an edged weapon, like a knife or box cutter, would need to gain control of the plane and that would likely require getting out of their seat. With no one authorized out of their seats, the attention of flight attendants and air marshalls, if present, are obviously drawn to anyone getting out of their seat.

[JonQ]

23. What did the no nail clippers or liquids over x ounces accomplish?

Made people feel good that something was being done (for about a minute, then they got pissed at the inconvenience)

[tom_paine]

24. Standard nonsensical random "control" elements pushed by authoritarian governments everywhere &

everywhen.

Gets us used to obeying whim and prepares us for an authoritarian future more and more often defined and delineated with such random control methods.

Of course it's stupid, pointless, and ridiculous...but that's the point you WILL OBEY, even though everyone knows it's ridiculous.

Just another click on the temperature of the slowly boiling Inverted Totalitarian (Google it) and Authoritarian waters in which we swim and live here in the Empire.

[leftstreet]

30. [phone]

[Vinca]

27. Wait'll people start pissing their pants and ruining the seats . . . it'll change.

[havocmom]

37. How many people in a plane? Good thing seat cushions double as flotation devices

Can you carry snorkels on a plane?

[undeterred]

28. Faster evacuation of the plane if everyone runs to the bathroom.

:shrug:

[western mass]

32. You might forget to BE AFRAID

without these constant little reminders.

You know, like tying a string around your finger.

[walldude]

34. Not a fucking thing.

6 months from now that rule will go to the same place the rule about taking lighters on a plane did.

[Richard D]

36. What's it accomplish?

Soiled seats.

[HipChick]

38. Taking away blankets and pillows will hurt more

[Motown_Johnny]

39. The theory is that the terrorist would want to blow up the plane over the destination city

so keeping him/her in his/her seat until well before they are near the destination lowers the attractiveness of that style attack.

[LisaL]

41. There is no logic to it.

I don't recall that shoe bomber waited until the last minute.
They are doing it just because of this particular guy, as if the next one is going to do the exact same thing.

[Seeking Serenity]

42. The best answer is to allow all carry-ons, liquids, box cutters, etc., on the plane.

Just don't allow any passengers. Problem solved.