| You can't get into a cab in NYC that doesn't have a shield that | protects the | cabbie from the passengers. Why on earth is the cabin even | accessible from | the passenger compartment? Could planes not be constructed to isolate the | cabin entirely from the passengers? You could certainly provide limited | seating for pilots that were flying along forward of this partition. | | Is there any good reason for the amount of trust which is required in the | present model? I think not, and hope that Boeing and Airbus (and other manufacturers) will start redesigning their planes with an option of a completely separate flight-deck etc. There will likely be severe drawbacks to this though: - no medical attention possible to pilots if one suffers a sickness and a doctor happens to be on board - no possibility of a steward(ess) of passenger taking over in case the flight-crew gets disabled.