Folks, ya gotte remember, we’re dealing with the Federal government and a bureaucracy here.
Opening up my copy of the Federal Aviation Regulations, I note that there is always a distinction made between “vehicles”, which are land transportation, and “aircraft”, which are air transportation, even if the aircraft do occassionaly travel by land. And when you get to the part on on seaplanes, some of which are boat hulls mounted with wings, a simillar distinction is made between things that transport people and things over water and those that do so over air, even though the air transport contrivences occassionally use the water.
Where this really gets confusing is Part 103, where an ultralight, which flies, is defined as a “vehicle” and not an “aircraft”.
The point being, how the government defines things may or may not be how they are defined by the common citizen, which is why there is a “Dictionary Act of the US Code”, to make explicit these definitions.
For many many years, whenever you approached an airport of any size, there was at least one sign (usually many) stating that the penalty for delibrate damage to an aircraft can result in penalties up to and including death. Likewise, usually multiple signs saying interfering a flight crew is a Federal offense with very stiff penalities. So the judge is actually right - the Patriot Act brought the penalities for messing with other forms of transortation up to those for screwing with airplanes, and in that sense is redundant in relation to airplanes. (To my mind, this means you should be able to charge the guy under both sets of laws, but I’m not a lawyer so what do I know?) This doesn’t mean someone carrying a bomb onto a plane will go unpunished. This columist saw an oppotunity to blast a judge and put a “isn’t the law and its practioners stupid” slant to it.
Maybe, to make everyone happy, we should ammend the Dictionary Act to better define “mass transportation vehicle” as something that transports X or more people by land, air, or sea. Then in 50 years we can all have a meltdown over the fact that the tourist shuttle to the space stations and moon colony aren’t included because those quaint, early 21st century folks never considered space travel for the masses.
To reiterate - under Federal regulations and law an airplane is not a vehicle, it’s an aircraft (unless it’s an ultralight). If you carry a bomb onto an airplane it doesn’t matter what you call the fast-moving aluminum tube, you’re going to be heavily penalized.