I was watching the news last night and it seems Bush is going to take measures to make aircraft more resistant to terrorists.
This includes armed ‘Sky Marshals’, locks on the cockpit door and bulletproof cockpit doors.
Well I have another idea. What about sleeping gas? It’s controlled from the cockpit. If the pilot thinks it’s getting too hairy he flicks a switch and the passenger compartment is filled with sleeping gas. He leaves it ten minutes then goes back disarms the terrorists and handcuffs them to something.
Too many potentials for lawsuits… what if there is a passenger on board who has a drug allergy, and the gas kills him? I GUARANTEE that person’s family would sue. Not to mention it takes different amounts of gas to knock out different people. Not a viable opiton, in MY opinion.
If you look at the stats, which I haven’t done. There are surly only about 1 or 2 high jacking incidents every couple of years over US soil.
Then take the number of people on board and check it against the number of people with that certain drug allergy. I’m sure there is a very low possibility of someone dieing.
Even if there was the company could have it written into their insurance.
Much better than bullets in mid air if you ask me.
A smart terrorist can defeat a sky marshal. Assume the sky marshal is travelling incognito. Which passenger is he? A couple of confederates can simulate an “air rage” situation. The sky marshal comes over to break it up. Now the terrorist-in-charge knows who the sky marshal is. He may also be able to grab his gun. Now there is a terrorist with a gun in the cabin. Not a good thing.
Maybe the sky marshals should not be armed? Arm the pilots instead. The cockpit door will be locked (as it is now) from the inside. At a sign of trouble the copilot can retrieve the gun (filled with low-velocity or Glaser rounds), get up, and face the door. It would be a good idea to have a surveillance camera outside of the door as well so that they can see what the problem is.
But I wouldn’t want a gun in the cabin.
As already stated, an anesthetic is not really an option. Possible Urban Legend: The crew turns the heat up in the cabin to make people lethargic. Don’t know if they do it on purpose, but I’ve been in a lot of cabins that were overheated.
There has been talk of remote control for the aircraft so that it can be flown to safety from the ground. This might actually make terrorists’ jobs easier. Instead of getting into an aircraft with scores of people who might attack them, they could break into the signal remotely. That’s why people who fly remote control airplanes have flags on their transmitters; to see that no one else is on their frequency. Of course taking over an airliner would not be as easy as taking over someone’s R/C model (classified frequencies, heavy encryption, etc.), but would you bet your life on it?
One thing they should do is x-ray the checked baggage. I’m pretty sure they don’t do it now in the U.S.
I think you’re going to find technology and the production of so-called “smart guns” fastracked. These are the ones that will only fire if its in the “owners” hand.
Of course, I’m just guessing but it only makes sense.