Did you think that planes might be used to attack us again?

[Rose Siding]

I did. Maybe it was the 50 years worth of planes overhead becoming white noise, but after those first few days of silence in the sky, once the flights began again I noticed them. For a week or two I noticed every one.

Trying to prepare for the worst case, I'd envision or theorize about what might happen next. The highest impact, most damaging scenarios I could envision always involved planes- probably smaller ones than on Sept 11. I'd worry about news that 4 or 5 stadiums or shopping malls or elementary schools had been simultaneously hit by small planes.

I thought that if they understood us and hated us, that's what they'd do: along with a certain casualy count, wipe out a shopping season or an industry or the school year. Did anyone else think something like that might happen?

Why didn't the US government think that would happen?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=693&e=6&u=/ap/20041022/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/tsa_flight_schools

U.S. Begins Tighter Flight School Checks
Fri Oct 22, 6:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The federal government has begun conducting background checks on all foreigners seeking to attend U.S. flight schools, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday.

The expanded security measures, aimed in part at preventing potential terrorists from taking pilot lessons here as some of the Sept. 11 hijackers did, now apply to any foreigner seeking flight training in the United States, not just those learning to fly larger aircraft. As well, those who want to attend flight school for a second time — for certification to fly a different classification of aircraft, for example — will need to have their backgrounds checked again.

Previously, only those training on aircraft weighing 12,500 pounds or more had their backgrounds checked.

"Fortifying security by knowing who trains at these schools is an integral part of our mission to secure the homeland," said TSA chief David Stone, whose agency expanded the pool to include smaller aircraft on Wednesday......

[Nikia]

1. No one will hijqack a commercial plane again

My sister is a flight attend. Before 9/11, they were trained to cooperate with hijackers to minimimize loss of life. Now they are trained to actively resist hijackers. Many passengers would have 9/11 in mind too. That coupled with increased security makes it unlikely.
I suppose that if terrorists owned private planes though, they could use it for an attack. People take private planes out all the time and fly around cities and sometimes fly relatively low. It would take seconds to crash it into something major.

[davsand]

2. Anybody tries that again it will be ruled suicide.

The public thought that sitting and letting a high jacker have his way would, at worst, result in a trip to Cuba or some other nation. After 9/11, it became a reality that resistance could possibly save your life.

Anybody that tries a high jacking now, unless they kill everybody on that plane all at one time, will end up as a bloody smear on the walls of that plane. There might be a few passengers killed trying to take our hijackers, but I'm pretty sure that more than a few would think that was better than becoming a missile.

My bigger fear, to be honest, is that some of the folks on here are correct that those planes were under a remote control. If that is correct, they'll try it again.

Seems to me, that if anybody was serious about causing damage to the citizens of the US, or even property damage, there are any number of targets and methods that would do it more effectively. I don't know if you've read much Tom Clancy (pure fiction!) but in one of his books he has a plot where terrorists plant aerosolized Ebola in various convention centers.

While I think that is pretty far fetched, I also think he's right in the idea that one sure way of damaging our nation would be with some odd type of attack method. Think about this: we have it all over the media right now that there is flu vaccine shortage. What IF some wingnut decided to use THAT as a method of attack?

We went thru an entire Anthrax scare earlier in this administration...

They just recently were talking about stockpiling medicines for exposure to radiation.

The really creepy part of all of this, is the idea that some folks hold that biologicals are equal to Nukes if they are used. It isn't a real stretch of the imagination to see the asswipe happily raining nukes down on somebody if he thought he could do it.

Anyhow, I hope like hell that NOTHING more happens.


Laura