So says a retired commercial airline pilot with 25 years of experience, who wrote to offer me his opinion of why the porno-tron goons are searching pilots:

“Because they have been instructed to view us no differently than Joe Blow passenger.  Maybe view us even more suspiciously since — in their mind — a ‘terrorist’ could supposedly gain access by dressing up as a pilot or flight attendant . . . . The entire assumption is ludicrous, of course, but this is the kind of mindset these goons are taught to embrace.  Never mind that there are SO many ways this would NEVER work for a ‘terrorist.

For instance, unless the ‘terrorist’ is going through security ALONE, I’m pretty sure the rest of the crew would know this guy is NOT part of their crew.  My co-pilot knows who I am, and if I have already met the [flight attendants] and we’re all walking together to our aircraft I’m pretty damn sure a ‘terrorist’ would be fleshed out by the crew way before he ever got near the aircraft.

Then, there’s the problem of all the ID we have.  Our IDs are passed out to us at the flight academy only, and they are imprinted with our FBI-approved data on the back which looks just like a credit card.  All you have to do is swipe it through any of the Security computers and Voilà!  All of our data stored by the FBI comes up, including our pictures.  If the ‘terrorists’ can figure out a way to duplicate that process to the point that it fools ANY security check point, then we might as well put up our hands and surrender . . .

Then, of course, there is the problem of any ‘terrorist’ in a flight uniform who looks like he stepped off the boat from Baghdad, Iraq. . . . Then, there is the problem of what happens if he gets all the way to the cockpit.  The ‘terrorist’ would have to surmount a MOUNTAIN of difficulties, like being dead-on familiar with our company’s cockpit procedures. He’d have to be TYPE RATED in the aircraft he’s going to fly into a building so as NOT to give himself away to the First Officer (assuming the First Officer is so dense he doesn’t recognize this stranger sitting next to him).  He’d have to know ALL the procedures for starting the aircraft, calling for and getting clearance to push off the gate, taxi procedures on the ramp BEFORE he even gets to the airport taxiways.

At this point, I think it should be obvious that the sheer number of naturally occurring obstacles a ‘terrorist’ would have to surmount trying to slip through security wearing a flight uniform is gargantuan.  However, this is TSA we’re talking about, and I’m damn sure they are taught all kinds of horror stories and fear just as we mundanes are taught to fear ‘terrorism’ which is, of course, around every corner, in every bush, in every tree, everywhere, all the time.  And, I’m sure the TSA Goon Instructors teach their budding authoritarians the fine art of ‘goonism’ and the proper ways to push mundanes around, including flight crews.  It’s all about POWER and CONTROL.

SAFETY?  PFFFFFFFF!  Don’t make me laugh!”

The Best of Thomas DiLorenzo