Speaking of pointless security measures (again), Eric made an interesting observation yesterday. Now that airplane cockpit doors are locked, what is the purpose of forbidding sharp items on flights? Sure, someone could take the entire airplane hostage and start threatening to cut people. But that would gain them nothing, as no pilot would give in to their demands.
This looks like a good example of how security measures stay in place even after they’ve outlived their usefulness. Things get onto the forbidden list far more easily than they get off the list.
“”But that would gain them nothing, as no pilot would give in to their demands.””
Hmmm ,I doubt many pilots would remain calm and cool enough, and most of all, keep the door locked when someone actually starts to cut and kill people in the plane. Smart terrorists would start with hurting/killing the pilots colleagues first, since he/she is familiar with them?. Imagine yourself as a pilot ? would you be able to keep the door locked when a terrorist already killed a couple of your colleagues, and claims to kill some more if you don?t open the door?would you? ?The keep the door locked under all circumstances? is imo one of those rules invented by people who doesn?t know how it feels to be threatened. Would you keep the door locked when a terrorist claims his/her mates have your wife/husband and kids as a hostage (a so called ?tiger kidnapping?), and says to kill them if you don?t open the door?
On the other hand, on any flight on which food is served, you could easily use the plastic fork and knife which does come with the food as a weapon. Doesn?t makes much of an impression, but good enough tools to kill someone (if properly used, and you know where to stick/cut), or at least harm someone in a serious way (stick fork in eye for instance)?
Btw, where do those question marks come from???
After 9/11, every pilot knows that letting terrorists gain control of the plane is likely be worse than anything the terrorist could do to the passengers.
And plain old kidnapping (friends / family as hostage) is not specific to planes, so it doesn’t make sense to have rules specific to planes. Would you forbid sharp items anywhere outside the kitchen, workshop and surgery?
PS: The email field is not just for my curiosity… If you fill in your email address, and it’s one that the blog system recognises, your comment gets published straight away without having to wait for me to approve it.
?After 9/11, every pilot knows that letting terrorists gain control of the plane is likely be worse than anything the terrorist could do to the passengers.?
Sure, point is ? would a pilot be able to resist the temptation to open the door after all? Keep the door closed at all time while he/she hears people been stabbed to dead behind his back, people screaming out of fear for their life, and this without even knowing the terrorists final plan. The pilot gets faced with people killing others (the sounds of people faced to dead ? the screaming), and at that point (while it happens) unlikely able to imagine what the terrorists might be up to (he/she doesn?t knows the terrorists plan).
So, other scenario – pilot refuses to open the door – terrorists kill all the people on the plane (agitated as they are, because unable to get control over the plane) ? pilot makes safe landing ? everybody happy and pilot is called a hero? I doubt so.
It?s much more easy for one to order someone to shoot the plane, in an attempt to stop the terrorists, since he/she is not faced to what?s going on on the plane in a direct way (the sound people faced to dead ? the screaming).
?Would you forbid sharp items anywhere outside the kitchen, workshop and surgery??
My kitchen can?t be used as a weapon, a plane can
And yes, pilots need to go through stress tests. So the ones who successfully passed the stress tests, are supposed to remain calm and think clear under all circumstances. Fact is, no test, how hard it might be, will come close to such an extreme situation!
No superior is likely to know whether each of the pilots will indeed remain calm – and as important ? take the correct decisions under extreme conditions, though each graduated pilot passed the stress tests successfully.
Some pilots made the wrong decisions in case of an (technical) emergency (the black box shows it all), and crashed a plane which possibly could make a safe landing. So it is imo kind of naive to assume each pilot will keep the door closed at all time, under all circumstances.
Why avoid sharp items on a plane? You want to avoid a pilot to get into an extreme stressful situation, as though he/she passed the stress tests successfully, you are still not 100% sure he/she will make the correct decisions when faced to dead! And we don?t want to take the risk he/she might possibly take the wrong ones after all (open the door)!