On Fri, 22 Nov 2002 16:31:30 -0800 (PST), Vadim Antonov wrote:
In the "regular" skyjacking the attackers want to get ransom, or divert an airplane to someplace. They'll get cooperation from pilots, too - without any need to be present in the cockpit. So if it is known that the policy is not to let anyone in, no matter what happens to passengers, the attackers wouldn't even try. In fact, they don't, on airlines which have this policy. Letting deranged people in cockpit, in fact, places _all_ passengers at risk of an unintended crash (imagine an attacker getting agitated and killing pilots, or simply pulling knobs - there were incidents when _little kids_ allowed to cockpit crashed the commercial planes).
The rules of engagement were patently absurd
Let me see if I understand you correctly. You have a mentally disturbed man with two guns and a belt full of bullets on a plane. He wants to speak to the pilot face-to-face. He says if the pilots don't come out, he's going to shoot the 236 passengers one-by-one. If you were the pilot, before 9/11, how many passengers would you let him shoot before you came out? And what consequences would you expect to face when/if you landed safely? I'm sorry, your reasoning might apply to some fantasy world but it would not have seemed sensible to any rational person in the United States prior to those terrorist attacks. They succeeded because nobody was expecting them. As soon as anyone expected them, they failed. This is why Todd Beamer's plane didn't reach its target. [snip] As for your arguments about the benefits of government intervention in the computer market and other types of social engineering, I just hope people like you stay out of power. At least Microsoft only uses their own resources to push their vision of the future. You are welcome to use yours to push yours. DS