Nobody's brought this up? "Terror" in the sky story?

[techweenie]

...so this couple was traveling to L.A. on American Airlines and had a stopover in Detroit. there are 14 Syrian men on the flight ranging from 20s to 40s.

The Syrians stand up, move around; seem to take turns going to the lavatory, and in other ways appear to the couple to be 'acting suspiciously.'

The couple freaks out; talks to the flight attendants, who are also wary and the flight crew radios L.A., which has a gaggle of law enforcement types ready to descend at the end of the flight. They do, and question the men, who are claiming to be a band with a gig in Vegas. The story checks and they are let go.

Turns out that there were two sky marshalls on the flight and they did not see the need to take action.

Was this

A. hyper paranoia on the part of this couple and some flight attendants, or

B. part of a pattern of 'dry run' activities being conducted by middle eastern men on US domestic flights?

Lots of discussion on this elsewhere, so why not here?

The original sotry:

http://www.womenswallstreet.com/WWS/article_landing.aspx?titleid=1&articleid=711

Run a Google search and you'll see that this story is raging in several directions.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I'm pretty sure a sky marshal's job is to plug the guy when he stands up and shouts, "Take this bus to Cuba!"

[turbocarrera]

Have they secured the cockpits of American airliners yet?

[Dantilla]

All US airliners have had the hardened doors for a while now.

[dtw]

Two weeks ago I walked into the airport and obtained my boarding pass (Raleigh, NC to LAX by way of Phoenix) without presenting a lick of ID to the counter rep. Potentially mitigating factors:
-boarding pass is checked against ID 2-3 times throughout subsequent passage to 'secure' areas.
-ticket had been booked through the group travel dep't of the huge accounting firm I work for.

Thoughts?

[Don 944 LA]

seen that here, or somewhere else..

They were taking trips to the lavatory to pray....

All was innocent stuff.

But because the terrorist HAVE succeded, we are in fear ( terror ) and we suspect anything that looks " different "

[turbocarrera]

hardened doors? unable to be opened by anyone other than the pilots? like in Israel? or so I've read..

[techweenie]

Part of the issue seems to be no re-screening of passengers after the Detriot stopover, and the author of the original article was in fear of eating utensils.

I wonder about the 'praying in the lavatory' story. There's barely enough room to stand...

[mikester]

Innocent until proven guilty. NOT the other way around.

[JavaBrewer]

If they can't get into the cockpit they can't fly the plane. Much cheaper to implement - throw in a couple barrel rolls and you're good to go.

[JavaBrewer]

Actually I believe the commercial airliner routine is done. Too much planning and potential for failure. How hard would it be for a would-be terrorist to get hands on a big truck? Park that sucker and walk away. We're never going to be able to protect against that kind of insanity.

[singpilot]

It would be easier to do away with the airborne pilots all together. No need for them to actually be there. All controls could be removed. Aircraft flown entirely by remote control.

No danger to the pilots, who could be anywhere. Northwest Airlines guys would have to prove they are not in the bar. Vending machines instead of Flight Attendants. No danger to them anymore.

I could be sitting on a beach somewhere guiding you thru the skies, while sipping an iced tea, and surfing the net (Pelican Parts BBS) during the boring / tedious parts while you absorb all of the risk of flying. As you said SoCal911SC, all the incentive to hijack / crash the airplane would be gone.

I like this idea. I could finally lose the tie, and not have to suffer all the indignities of the TSA security checks.

I know someone here will (pardon the pun) shoot this idea down for some reason I have not dreamed up yet. But from MY viewpoint, it sounds like a great idea.

[kach22i]

Originally posted by techweenie
... claiming to be a band with a gig in Vegas.

Second oldest story in the world is "I'm with the band". The oldest is, I won't c.....m in your mouth, I promise.

[JavaBrewer]

Then some insane geek terrorist, or someone who got canned for not filling out their TPS reports, provides a means to scramble, jam, or override the ground to air remote controls. Now every plane is a potential disaster. Hey that could be a movie!

[djmcmath]

I can see remote controlled airplanes being a nightmare. Aside from David's scenario, there's the day-to-day humdrum that won't improve -- do you really believe they'll let you off the plane with no backup? What if the computer fails? What if the radio fails? What if, what if what if? We'd better keep a flight crew on board "just in case," despite the fact that we're going to do all the flying from the ground, so their existence is completely pointless. That'd suck.

Dan

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally posted by singpilot
I know someone here will (pardon the pun) shoot this idea down for some reason I have not dreamed up yet. But from MY viewpoint, it sounds like a great idea.

One dirty fission bomb in the atmo and you've got a thousand people-filled bombs in the sky at any one time. Unless we move away from radio and go to tachyon-pulse or some equally fanciful method.

Plus there's the encryption you'd need on the signal(s)...and the radio freqs...and interference....

It works for things like pharmacies, which are not really time-critical (a friend of a friend dispenses meds from her computer at home all day). But if you're low on fuel and the "failsafe mode" means start circling...you get the idea.

Sorry, you're stuck in the suit and tie for now.

[304065]

Northwest Airlines guys would have to prove they are not in the bar

LOL! They could have a terminal located ON the bar to fly remotely from there!

How about this instead: a nice Heckler & Koch USP 10mm loaded with Glaser Safety slugs, in the hands of the flight crew. Steel shot embedded in a teflon binder with a pre-fragmented copper jacket, 115 grains at 1650 FPS ought to do the job on "terrorists."

[bell]

Originally posted by BlueSkyJaunte
I'm pretty sure a sky marshal's job is to plug the guy when he stands up and shouts, "Take this bus to Cuba!"

makes sense to me...........why blow your cover and the element of suprise if there isn't an immediate threat.........
the marshals are there in the event that one of these guys needs a hole put in their head, not to tell them to sit down.

[Mule]

Come on guys, if the "men" on the plane confront them and just go "get in line for the bathroom" too, what can they do? Just go stand in line, ask if they're muslims, ask if they're on jihad, just some conversational small talk to let them know that we're willing to deal should push come to shove. I mean if women on the plane were in tears over this little demonstration, then it's time to act. It's a shame nobody did.

[85eurocarrera]

I would agree with Mule. If I was on that plane, I hate to fly, I would have done just that. I probably would have removed myself from that plane before it took off. Call me paranoid, I may be a little when it comes to airplanes, but not racist. We know who attacked us and these people, if story is correct, were doing some suspicious stuff. I am not going down without trying to save myself. If these people were legit and peaceful they should understand my concerns as an American, on a plane in the USA.

Joe