Writes another retired commercial airline pilot:
“I am also an airline pilot . . . I agree with the fallacies pointed out by the other commercial airline pilot in your blog . . . Cockpit preparation, startup, taxi & takeoff ritual is so highly defined and we are so aware of the smallest transgressions from procedure, that a terrorist would have to actually be an airline pilot for that company in that exact model of airplane to not give himself away.
In addition, the passenger and crew screening has to be considered theater as well . . . I say this because in the bowels of every airport and through automatic airside vehicle entrance gates the ramp crews, baggage handlers, catering trucks & drivers all pass into the secure area on the airplane side of the airport by swiping an ID card. They can have anything with them. Who would know? They put baggage in the bellies of the airplanes, clean the cabins and lavatories, perform aircraft maintenance, and climb into electronics bays from underneath on occasion. They wouldn’t be given away by not knowing how to go through the elaborate ritual of cockpit preparation. (emphasis added).
2:49 pm on November 19, 2010
