With the latest “liquid bomb” scare, we can no longer carry any liquids, gels, toothpaste, shaving cream, etc on airplanes.
What if the next bomb scare involves a shirt woven from explosive fabric? Is this possible?
If it is, will we be forced to disrobe and wear some government-provided garment?
This sounds ridiculous, but if we allow clothes, even though they may be explosive, how can we disallow liquids because they can be explosive?
Essentially, where do you guys think airline security, from an average airline passenger’s point of view, is headed as terrorists think of more and more ways to blow up planes?
Well, the problem with the liquids was that there was not a really good way to tell if it was a bomb, because they weren’t a bomb yet. So they therefore were hard to detect, I imagine.
I cannot see an explosive fabric being a real problem, since the only way I can concieve of one working is by essentially impregnating the fabric with a HE that would be detectable by bomb dogs pretty quickly. Plus, you still would have to get the thing to react, and you will need a vessel to turn into a bomb casing. (with no casing, you get a fire)
So, I do not think that the device you are describing is very feasable. If it turned out to be, I am sure that it would actually be considered to have us fly nekkid in the name of security.
Wow, I am glad my wife is terrified of planes. I only have to think about these problems in the theoretical.
I don’t think that it is practical to keep bombs off planes. There are too many ways to sneak one on board, unless all carry-on items and checked luggage are banned and the passengers are x-rayed.
Another approach would be to require background checks on the passengers, or to do extensive interviews, as done by El Al.
I suspect the only chance for resuming sanity re: airline security is to have a number of successful terror strikes against other aspects of our society - trains, buses, ships, shopping malls, amusement parks, infrastructure, etc. If that occurs, the pointlessness and waste of the feel-good/look-good TSA approach to air passenger harrassment will be made clear.
Can you elaborate on this or point me to some more info? I’m curious about how these interviews would work. I would bet that a lot of people “fail” the interview because they’re nervous or scared or just blurt out something stupid. What happens to them then?
If someone really wants to get a bomb on a plane, then surely they could conceal it inside their body? Either by traditional “packing”, or, I’d have thought, some kind of body implant that can be triggered by the carrier.
Compulsory X-rays for all passengers? No wait, best cut everyone open to be on the safe side…
If it ever gets to the point where passengers have to strip and wear government issued clothes (Americans are way to pruding make everyone fly naked) the air travel will be dead. Those who can afford it will charter private jets. As for everyone else, Amtrak will enter a new golden age.