Re: Re: OT: Terrorism

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

>
>And of course no pesky flight
>crew trying to save the day since the plane is off course and the
>pilot can no longer control it. /me shudders at the thought
>
>Mark.
>


NO! I *never* suggested that either of the pilots should at any time have
control of the aircraft removed from them. Quite the contrary in fact. -
the
technology should be employed to absolutely ensure that *only* the
authorised flight crew can fly the aircraft, *NOT* some swarthy hijacker in
the pilot's seat. - the controls should quite simply refuse to respond to
commands from anyone other than the pilot or the co-pilot, or in the
extreme
event that both of these people are incapacitated, taken over by a
ground-based flight crew or by an on-board automated system which merely
makes the plane divert immediately to the nearest available airport and
land. I believe that the technology to do probably about 90% of that is
already in the planes.... certainly there are auto-pilot systems automatic
navigation systems, and automatic landing systems, what more need there be?

Having read Mark's (very long) post, he makes some very good and sensible
points, and offers wise counsel against the dangers of
"knee-jerk"
reactions. However, I just cannot agree to the notion that because you can
never guarantee 100% success at preventing terrorist actions, and just
because on balance terrorist actions are (until now) very rare ocurrences,
that you should simply not bother to do anything at all, and just carry on
with "business as usual" and not even try to make it difficult
for them!

The simple fact remains that some of the technologies that have been
discussed here in the last day or two *COULD* have prevented these
disasters
and the massive untold loss of life that has resulted. - It has been
suggested that the final death toll could be more than the entire loss of
life by both sides in the Vietnam war...

Sorry Mark, but that takes terrorism out of the realms of
"minority"
activity.

To be frank, I have never been on the flight deck of a plane in flight, and
I don't feel the slightest hard done by because of it. I see no reason at
all why I should regard it as my "right" as part of my personal
freedom to
do so, and I do not feel in any way less secure or that my personal
freedoms
have been abused by not doing so, or by not having the captain come and
talk
to me in person.

One can only begin to imagine what those poor souls on those planes must
have thought, but I would like to think that if I were in such a position,
knowing that death was a certainty, I would be considerably more anguished
if I also had the certain knowledge that tens of thousands of people on the
ground were also going to suffer and die. I sincerely believe that if given
that awful choice and then presented with a self-destruct button, most
people would elect to press it.

I'll stop now, this whole concept is too depressing....

Paul G.



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