By now you’ve surely heard about the foiled attempt to ignite an explosion on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 yesterday.
Now, the aftermath …
According to Air Canada officials, the Transportation Security Agency is about to make serious changes in its rules regarding how passengers are able to move about on a plane. There will be no more getting up during the final hour of all flights. In the course of that hour, you will not be allowed to access carry-on baggage, and you cannot have personal belongings or other items on your lap. As written in the New York Times: “In effect, that means passengers on flights of about 90 minutes or less will not be able to get out of their seats, since they are not allowed to move about while an airplane is climbing to its cruising altitude.” Here’s the notice posted by Air Canada.
In short, flying now sucks more than ever before. I mean, it really, really, really isn’t fun; and people probably need to start asking themselves whether, say, a three-day trip to the Baham
as or California or Vegas is worth the ordeal. I certainly understand the urgency, and can appreciate the panic this sort of thing causes.
But, come day’s end, what are we supposed to do? Should we insist all passengers have their hands and feet taped together upon boarding a plane? Should we supply all passengers with bedpans, so they never have to leave their seats? Maybe we can have a special police department that places 20 cops on every plane?
I don’t know what to do. All I know is that, eight years ago, George W. Bush rightly insisted that we not allow terrorists to scare us out of living.
We’ve failed.
