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.
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.
F*** off with your perspective. On my way to Dubai right now and no reason I should not have WiFi just to avoid profiling.
“A cellphone connected to a detonation circuit could have allowed a terrorist to trigger an explosion by calling or texting the phone. “
How retarded. Cell phones do not call directly to other cell phones.
Some airlines have offered wifi connections for a couple of years. I recall reading recently that Delta offers it on all of their planes. I've seen it on Airtran and AA as well.
Last week on a 5 hour transcon flight, the guy across the aisle from me kept his cell phone hidden between his legs the entire flight. He would turn it on occasionally and punch a few keys. This was not a gaming device — just a plain old cell phone. All I could think of was him phoning the bomb in the hold.
I reported it to the cabin attendants and they did a discreet walk-by. One of them engaged him in a 5 second conversation. When I talked to the attendant later on the flight, he said everything was ok. It didn’t help matters that the person with the phone used a photo of his kids as a bookmark in the novel he was reading. And it seemed he was looking around just a little too much. The entire thing looked highly suspicious to me, but no other passengers spotted it and the attendants were not alarmed at all. I’ve never been so happy to land as I was on that flight.
Why not line the cargo compartment with aluminum foil to block any signal?