Cockpit security rant-9/11 should not have happened.

[trof]

"Testifying before the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee in 1969, Charles Ruby (then president of the Air Line Pilots' Association) said that ALPA, along with airline industry and government agencies, had pressed for research and development of "satisfactory equipment capable of solving the hijacking problem, either by detecting weapons or other devices used by hijackers prior to their boarding an aircraft or disarming hijackers in flight. Several techniques and devices have been considered, including X-ray, radar, magnetometers, bulletproof protection, more effective cockpit door locks, and…a means of surveying the passenger compartment by pilots."

"ALPA’s leaders aren’t the only ones who took note of the union’s calls for fortified cockpits and other security improvements. In October 2001, Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene, in a column headlined "Don’t say that we weren’t forewarned," cited a 1970 letter from Ruby to the FAA asking for a bulletproof cockpit with electromagnetic locks and a sliding panel in the cockpit doors so pilots could use defensive devices."
https://www.alpa.org/alpa/DesktopModules/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=400

Isn't it sad that if these requests had been given serious consideration and study the World Trade Towers would still be standing? It's still the same old story, that of bottom line for the airlines and the government not wanting to assume the financial responsibilities for security. It's been going on for over 40 years.

There's an old saying in aviation that nothing will be changed until you kill enough people.
I guess we've finally killed enough people.
:-(

[trof]

1. kick

[Solomon]

2. I still don't believe it was done

with boxcutters. How come one of them boxcutters didn't float outta the sky like that clean passport did?

[RoeBear]

3. You gotta be kidding me...

...the doors were opened because the terrorists were slitting stewardesses throats! What the fuck good would any of the items mentioned have done (possible exception: better detecting of weapons on the ground)? There is only one thing that could have stopped the terrorists and that's arming the flight crew.

[trof]

4. nope

With the secure cockpit comes the understanding that the door does not open. You may land with the back end full of corpses, but you don't turn into a flying bomb.

on edit-sorry, you don't know me. I was an airline pilot for 30+ years. I know a little bit about this stuff.

[Solomon]

5. Now that's a point you can't argue

with. :smoke: