Airport Delays

[TomK]

"Under that theory, one must ask why we scan baggage in the first place?"

Pan Am 103 comes to mind as one of many reasons we scan baggage.

Which is why one would think the baggage scanners would be fixed in hours versus three and one half days!

You can search baggage in different albeit slower ways without the most modern scanners. That's why the delays to passengers when the scanner broke down weren't that long. You can't do the same for a runway that is dangerous for aircraft to land on or use for takeoff. That runway has to be fixed first before anyone can travel. A broken scanner doesn't generally shut down an airport, but a dangerous runway or the consequences of an accident caused by such a runway will cause more than a two-hour delay for passengers.