So why

[WriterDom]

is it so damn hard to smuggle a firearm aboard an airliner, yet none of the 6 or 7 crew members are armed? You don't even need knives, just smuggle 4 black belt terrorists along with a pilot aboard. A switch to disable all control of the airplane from the ground would be nice also.

 

[morninggirl5]

Expensive as it might be, maybe we need armed US military personnel or US Marshals aboard every flight in the US.

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

Reportedly at least one of the terrorist teams had knives.

It would be enough that the pilots could flip a switch which would send a transponder encoding identifying them as hijacked. If there is already such a beast, it doesn't sound like it was used.

STG

 

[Never]

1. A switch on the ground? That would mean that if a terrorist could enter ground control they could lock the controls of planes in the air. That's not a good thing.

2. So, you expect them to teach firearm use in flight attendant school now? It would be just as easy to take hostages, all a terrorist would have to do is grab someone and threaten to kill them if anyone moved.

 

[morninggirl5]

They do have the "hijacked" button, but really what help would that have been.


One of the flight attendendants on one flight called American Airlines and reported the hijack. She had the presence of mind to not the seat number of one of the hijakcers.

 

[Mischka]

1. A switch on the ground?

I believe STG meant a switch on the planes. They are already equipped with a signalling device in case of terrorist attacks, but from what I've heard so far, none of the pilots had time to deploy the signal.

 

[WriterDom]

2. So, you expect them to teach firearm use in flight attendant school now? It would be just as easy to take hostages, all a terrorist would have to do is grab someone and threaten to kill them if anyone moved.

so they die and the hostage dies. Is that not better than 30,000 dead?

Or 100,000 dead if they crash into a football stadium?

 

[Mischka]

One of the flight attendendants on one flight called American Airlines and reported the hijack. She had the presence of mind to not the seat number of one of the hijakcers.

Where did you hear that? If confirmed, that will help enormously in tracing the terrorist group responsible for this tragedy.

 

[morninggirl5]

ABC reported it after the President's speech.

ABC or CBS (can't remember was flipping between them) has also reported that search warrants have already been executed in Miami.

 

[Never]

I believe STG meant a switch on the planes. They are already equipped with a signalling device in case of terrorist attacks, but from what I've heard so far, none of the pilots had time to deploy the signal.

I was responding to WriterDom's first post:
"A switch to disable all control of the airplane from the ground would be nice also."

WriterDom, flight attendants are civilians. You can't place that type of responsibility on another's head and then mandate how they respond. You can't force them to carry guns and you can't force them to shoot at people with hostages.

 

[WriterDom]

I was responding to WriterDom's first post:
"A switch to disable all control of the airplane from the ground would be nice also."

WriterDom, flight attendants are civilians. You can't place that type of responsibility on another's head and then mandate how they respond. You can't force them to carry guns and you can't force them to shoot at people with hostages.

Who said anything about arming flight attendants? One flight marshal on every fight would deter what happened today.

 

[Never]

1. You didn't say that.
2. And what is a 'flight marshal'?

 

[Mischka]

I was responding to WriterDom's first post:

Sorry about the confusion. I missed that line. And I agree with your assessment.

I simply feel helpless. I worked at American Airlines, and now some of those great pilots and flight attendants are dead. Not to mention all of the passengers. Those terrifying last few minutes are beyond comprehension. I really don't know how this could have been avoided, from the standpoint of the crew. From the cell phone conversations that have been reported, the planes each carried several terrorists. They simply outnumbered the crew. No armed crewmember would be able to outmanuveur a suicidal terrorist. I just don't know.

 

[WriterDom]

sky marshal (noun)

First appeared 1968

: an armed federal plainclothesman assigned to prevent skyjackings

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

I believe STG meant a switch on the planes. They are already equipped with a signalling device in case of terrorist attacks, but from what I've heard so far, none of the pilots had time to deploy the signal.

I may be wrong, but I believe the one aircraft that was diverted is the one where the cell phone call came from.

I wouldn't think that it would be that hard to "deploy" a switch that would change the transponder ident to "hijacked" - especially since it is not that easy to get into the cockpit. But this is all speculation.

STG

 

[Mischka]

I may be wrong, but I believe the one aircraft that was diverted is the one where the cell phone call came from.

I wouldn't think that it would be that hard to "deploy" a switch that would change the transponder ident to "hijacked" - especially since it is not that easy to get into the cockpit. But this is all speculation.

STG

Two planes had cell phone calls reporting the hijacking. A man from the restroom in the PA crash called 911 moments before they crashed (he was still on the phone when they went down). Olsen from the DC crash called her husband twice, and reported a few details about the terrorists and their on-board activities. That's how we know they had knives.

A switch would be easier to operate, but right now the pilots have to type in a code, I believe. I'm sure protocol will be changed after today.

 

[shadowsource]

The Marshall Plan -

That probably helped in the 1970s, though I'm not aware of any incidents in whcih a hijacker actually encountered sky marshalls. The problem is that it's very expensive to pay a trained law enforcement agent to fly around 8 hours a day. They used them on "selected" flights at the time. It certainly needs to be considered, but one on every flight will be seen as prohibitively expensive. Same as paying the airport security people more than minimum wage.

And the cell calls were from the Solicitor General's wife, who was on the plane that hit the Pentagon.