Friday, April 01, 2011

New anti-terrorism measures on airplanes

The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing additional precautions for domestic and international flights. Frequent flyers are already familiar with routine air travel procedures: "There are emergency exits over the wings. In case of sudden loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling. In the event of a water landing, your seat cushion may be used as a flotation device," and so on. Proposed for this spring is a new anti-terrorism measure: "In the event of a hijacking or other terrorist attack, your tray table may be detached and used as a shield or a bludgeoning device. After reattaching, please return your tray tables to a full upright and locked position."

The Transportation Safety Agency has considered this as an alternative to a proposal in which, rather than removing all potential weapons from travelers, instead each adult traveler would be provided with a fully charged taser so that the sneakiest or most dangerous person is not the only armed traveler aboard a flight.

The measures are under consideration as part of Airline Procedural Review #1 (APR-1).

2 comments:

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

The taser idea is really crazy! a better aoternative would be for crew members (only) to have them on board. And even that is iffy.

Weekend Fisher said...

I'm just hoping everybody is checking their calendars and weighing that when they consider whether this post was serious ...

Take care & God bless
Anne / WF