Airport Delays

[ChunksterK]

I have a close friend (former military buddy) who worked with TSA in a management position from its inception after the 2001 terrorist hijackings until he retired for a second time in 2022. He descibes the airport passenger screening process as a "pageant" to make the public feel safe when the real threats are elsewhere. He favors simplified, very barebones screening with a more modern version of profiling, that politically incorrect, but useful, practice the politicians did away with. Also, he says that the shoe removal requirement is "the most ridiculous thing ever," given that there was a single very unsuccessful attempt at a shoe bomb.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

These "spare parts" surely could fit on a self somewhere

You take off your shoes and have them screened because one guy tried to squeeze some explosives into his sneakers 25 years ago, unsuccessfully.  Does anyone think there are terrorists on Big Island waiting for an opportunity to sneak a pair of scissors on a plane if they let passengers board for a few days with reduced, random hand screening?  We used to get on planes with no screening, and few restrictions in carry on.  In the 1980’s a custom officer at Heathrow in London checked my pockets which bulged and asked what I had.  A pocket knife I said, would you like to see it?  He almost reluctantly said “I guess so.”  It was a medium size Swiss Army knife with probably 7 potential weapons (knives, corkscrew, etc) you can’t now carry on a plane.  He said “oh that’s OK.  Have a good flight.”

[Obie]

There was a successful bombing carried out in 1994. The airplane wasn't blown out of the sky because the bomb was placed just fwd of the center fuel tank.
The bomber had the components hidden in his shoes.
Philippine Airlines Flight 434, sometimes referred to as PAL434 or PR434, was a flight on December 11, 1994, from Cebu to Tokyo on a Boeing 747-283B that was seriously damaged by a bomb, killing one passenger and damaging vital control systems, although the plane was in a repairable state
Ramzi Yousef boarded the aircraft for the Manila to Cebu leg of the flight. The plane departed from Manila at 5:35 a.m. (UTC+08:00) After the plane was airborne, he went into the lavatory with his toiletry bag in hand and took off his shoes to get out the batteries, wiring, and spark source hidden in the heel below a level where metal detectors in use at the time could not detect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine...4#The_bomb

[kalakoa]

because one guy tried to squeeze some explosives into his sneakers 25 years ago

Consider ourselves lucky he didn't hide the explosives in his underwear.

[HiloJulie]

because one guy tried to squeeze some explosives into his sneakers 25 years ago

Consider ourselves lucky he didn't hide the explosives in his underwear.

Ever hear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab?

How soon we forget!

In as much as airport security is here to stay, I think the short term issue of actual airline safety is the drunk/drugged up loud mouth lunatic often referred to as a “Ken” or a “Karen”

[terracore]

These "spare parts" surely could fit on a self somewhere

You take off your shoes and have them screened because one guy tried to squeeze some explosives into his sneakers 25 years ago, unsuccessfully.  Does anyone think there are terrorists on Big Island waiting for an opportunity to sneak a pair of scissors on a plane if they let passengers board for a few days with reduced, random hand screening?  We used to get on planes with no screening, and few restrictions in carry on.  In the 1980’s a custom officer at Heathrow in London checked my pockets which bulged and asked what I had.  A pocket knife I said, would you like to see it?  He almost reluctantly said “I guess so.”  It was a medium size Swiss Army knife with probably 7 potential weapons (knives, corkscrew, etc) you can’t now carry on a plane.  He said “oh that’s OK.  Have a good flight.”

As much as I dislike the TSA (bureaucracy!) they tried relaxing the prohibited items list in 2013 including allowing smaller knives, golf clubs, small bats, etc but the flight attendant unions opposed it:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/fl...s/1968293/

The argument was that so long as the screeners are looking for items that aren't really dangerous (anymore) it diverts resources from looking for items that ARE really dangerous (like water!).

[kalakoa]

That's why some call it "security theatre".

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

That's why some call it "security theatre".

Imagine if you will*, a portal into which you willingly remove your shoes to enter, where x-rays bombard your body, where other humans are paid $15 an hour to rub your body and “randomly” pull you aside for unknown additional humiliations.  You have entered a dimension know as - - The Security Theater.

* Rod Serling never uttered these words, either in the intro to the Twilight Zone, or in any episode

[HiloJulie]

I think Archie Bunker had the right idea decades ago!

https://youtu.be/PMH8uiqqtRg?si=lZFTSTCdqvpVe0Pc

[TomK]

One would think, at least if there was any modicum of competency, that the shelves would be filled with every spare part needed to repair any possible problems immediately. 

I agree, as long as everyone is willing to see the price of flights rocket so that the airport can afford to buy every spare part possibly needed and have staff on call at a moment's notice to fix things.  This is an unfortunate incident but it's the cost of living in the middle of nowhere rather than living next to a major airport where some spare parts might be available. These are high-tech and very expensive machines, it's a wonder Hilo has them in the first place.

The same arguments could be made if a plane landed in Hilo with an engine problem and the engine needed replacing. That'll cause a delay as well which could be mitigated if every type of engine that might break is available at the airport (plus the skilled staff to carry out the job), but that just isn't economically viable.