Quote:
Originally posted by kbarger
I'm sad to report that the security at Philadelphia was by far the slackest
|
Lets keep this all in perspective. Previously one could carry knifes and other non-explosive weapons on planes when such was not permitted in any county courthouse (Doylestown, Norristown, etc).
TV crews photographed applicants who could not complete tests had those tests completed by company employees responsible for given the test. What did the FAA do? Nothing but a few small fines this was the exception.
Then there remains this *classic*. News investigators routinely, repeatedly, and blatantly challenged and defeated airport security. What was 'our' response? Many of us were outraged at the reporters - fallout from the Food Lion lawsuit. But even worse was Congress's response. They made such investigations illegal rather than address the FAA's graveyard mentality. FAA officials were not held responsible.
You may find security to be weak. But it is so much improved because now it does what it claimed it did on pre 11 Sept.
We don't need big security measures or more military hardware in airports. We simply needed the existing systems to work. 1) That meant that things illegal in a county courthouse were illegal on a plane. 2) That meant that a person who booked the flight could prove who he is - something that we still cannot do today.
3) That meant that any flight or ground crew attacked is protected by the full force of the law. Oh... in Newark, a family so brutally attacks the ground crewman to paralyze the man .... and be declared not guilty.
Of course the FAA now has a standard for all metal detector sensitivity? Well, are we citing specifics or just what we see?
Had we enforced security that was suppose to exist in pre 11 Sept, then the WTC attack could not have happened. We had the necessary security. Unfortunately we also had (and still have) FAA graveyard mentality. What changed? We now have graves. The FAA is doing what it claimed to do pre 11 Sept.
We are not at war (despite those who would use such fears to promote their agenda). We are under less attack today than we were in the 1990s. We don't need exotic security - just let (or even better require by law that) reporters expose security lapses. Lapses directly treaceable to FAA officials. The greatest weakness in airport security is the FAA's graveyard mentality that has not yet been addressed. Of course that would be addressing the source of a problem - 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management.