2010: A bad year to fly? – The end of the year witnessed the significant beefing up of airport security protocols for international travel in the wake of the latest terror-intentioned incident.
And 2009 was already a troubling year for airline safety: 6 commercial airliners crashed resulting in fatalities.
Not included in that total were 2 high-profile crashes that miraculously resulted in no deaths:
* on January 15th, the “landing” of a U.S. Airways flight in the Hudson River off-shore from Manhattan.
* an American Airlines flight with 154 passengers and crew, crash-landed after over-shooting the runway and landing on the beach in Jamaica on December 22nd.
But the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day (in airspace over southern Ontario!) aboard a Northwest flight headed for Detroit from Amsterdam, has caused significant re-thinking around the world on how to keep planes and their passengers safe from suicide bombers.
Very quickly, procedures that 3 weeks ago would have been rejected as unwarranted invasions of privacy, or flagrant violations of individual rights, are being hastily implemented for international flights leaving from Canada. What are now being labelled as esoteric, cumbersome and somewhat ineffective airport security methods, are quickly giving way to behaviour analysis, racial profiling, and full-body scans.
As the new year dawns, air travel is perceived by many to be an undesirable combination of risk and aggravation.
And 2 things are certain:
* the cost of security, and the increasing cost of insurance for commercial airlines and those providing security will be a growing factor in ticket prices and related taxes.
* but in the short term, airline seat sales will be attempting to induce travellers to take to the skies.
You mentioned the “unwarranted invasions of privacy” and the Dec 25 underwear bomber. I have decided my line in the sand is to not send myself, wife or kids through a naked body scanner. These machines can see right down to your pimples and hairs in high resolution.
I don’t like posting articles like the one below but the message needs to get out that we the people will no longer put up with the unwarranted invasion of our privacy.
*** CAUTION Images in link shows exact replicas of camera photos ***
http://www.infowars.com/inverted-body-scanner-image-shows-naked-body-in-full-living-color/
*** CAUTION Images in link shows exact replicas of camera photos ***
It is also important to note that these new security measures would not have stopped the Dec 25 high-jacking as he was waved through customs by someone with a very high security clearance and then the young man was allowed to board the plane without a passport. The underwear bomber was a known terrorist and on the terror watch list (not to mention his own father, a high ranking business man, notified the US government of his sons involvement in terrorists groups) There is very little mention of this second man who boarded the plane, video tapped the whole event, was identified by bomb sniffing dogs and then disappeared. This latest terrorist scam appears to be more about taking away our liberties than protecting us from terrorists. If this was a real terrorist he would have hit a soft target like a mall or school. Governments know that in real terrorist attacks you downplay the event and don’t report on it. It is only in sensationalism that the terrorist gets what he wants…terror. If know one knows about you there is no terrorism.
I would be interested in more articles on the risk of exchanging our freedoms for temporary safety. I would agree with Benjamin Franklin who said “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Graham