5:05p
airline security
President of the United States of America
White House
My
hope is that this letter will be directed to you or to someone else who
is in a
responsible position:I
can certainly appreciate you do not have time to read thousands of
messages that must be sent to this address every day.
Someone
may have already thought of this, but maybe no one has. No one thought
anyone would turn an airliner into a cruise missile. Four were, as everyone
knows today.
Measures
currently being taken such as improved airport security, better passenger
and
baggage screening, law enforcement and immigration intelligence sharing,
sky marshals, and
air force defence, should all help to avert a repeat of the hideous monstrosity
that was
perpetrated on September 11th in New York City and in Washington, DC.
The
pilots could release a gas that would put everyone onboard, outside the
cockpit, to
sleep. They could proceed to their destination where the trouble-makers
could be arrested. No
fuss, no muss. End of story. Total cost:next-to-zero.
The
airline industry could leave onboard drama and gunfights to Hollywood. Everyone
could get on with business and with life.
I
don't know what would be used as a harmless gas; I'm sure someone does.
The pilots
would have to close the cockpit door; they could even lock it. Boeing could
borrow some video
equipment from 7-11 so pilots would know what's going on behind them. The
airlines would
have to ensure that the right people are reporting as aircrew. (One of the
highjackers it was
reported on CNN showed up one day in the cockpit of an airliner, dressed
as a pilot!)
As
always, there is lots of blame to spread around. The lesson we can all learn
from this
is how lucky we are almost all the time. And we can be thankful the worst
brings out the best,
as we have seen -- a reason to bless all, even our enemies.
- Morley Evans