Posted on 11/08/2010 5:22:40 PM PST by Clint Williams
The long-awaited ability to use a cellphone or Wi-Fi connection on an aircraft might become a casualty of the latest aviation security threat.
It was revealed on 29 October that parcels containing a powdered explosive packed in laser printer cartridges had travelled undetected on aircraft to the UK and to Dubai in the UAE. A cellphone connected to a detonation circuit could have allowed a terrorist to trigger an explosion by calling or texting the phone.
This comes as the aviation industry is gearing up to provide broadband in-flight entertainment systems that feature both cellphone and Wi-Fi connections for passengers. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Shockingly, we will continue to ban everything on aircraft except for the one thing that will be guaranteed to eliminate virtually every threat.
At the rate we are going, TSA will soon reguire us to fly naked with no luggage. In a former life I was a commercial pilot. I am glad I don’t fly any more, it is more trouble than it is worth.
It was cell phones that enabled United 93 to discover what was going on on 9/11 and gave them the courage to fight back.
What idiocy. More security theater. Like a ban on wifi or cell phones is going to keep a terrorist from turning on their phone and pressing “send.” Or keep a plane from receiving a cell signal from towers line-of-sight below it.
I’m currently an airline pilot. I can’t wait to retire. When I do I plan to never set foot in an airport again.
Yep. The solution was to ban cellphones. Go figure.
How about banning prayer rugs, head bands, and napkins.... whatever fits....
How about banning prayer rugs, head bands, and napkins.... whatever fits....
The terrorist are winning and its our own government working for them.
Yackety-yack from folks who have made the whole world their own personal phone booth is annoying, isn’t it.
The roar on board most flying aircraft would go a good ways towards limiting how far the yack travels, however.
As for triggering an explosive in the luggage hold from on board the plane... I suppose that would be possible, but more likely whoever triggered it would want to stay alive if he had the choice, and could easily do so from outside the aircraft near its takeoff or landing sites. Also, it wouldn’t be all that hard to Faraday shield the luggage holds, to defeat either kind of signaling, by putting in a metal overhead electrically attached to the fuselage.
Every time we stand in the security check line at airports, we should thank a Muslim.
Agreed. Muslims want to live in the 7th century, why do they need to fly?
The air terrorists want you to be sick of anything — aircraft, airports — except the terrorists themselves.
F*** off with your perspective. On my way to Dubai right now and no reason I should not have WiFi just to avoid profiling.
They’re jealous because their carpets don’t fly but the infidels’ machines do.
It’s working.
I ain’t you of course, but if I was in your shoes I think I’d be heartily telling those terrorists to eff off. Those two bit seventh century death weasels would not make me shy away from one of the most wondrous inventions of modern mankind.
I am a pilot and unless I’m actually working (i.e. on a flight crew) I go AMTRAK - I refuse to fly commercial as a passenger anymore (working in Australia right now) ....
Yeah, well the response isn’t up to me. It’s up to the idiots in govt, specifically the TSA. I’m so sick and tired of the BS I can’t wait to be done with it. And it only gets worse. Naked body scans, aggressive pat downs. Idiotic restrictions like no ink printer cartridges on commercial aircraft. Like terrorists can’t figure out how to use some other device. No thanks.
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