yikes,
i discovered a really major security gap while traveling on a domestic airline recently. i am not sure whom to relate it to. would i call f.b.i., or homeland security, perhaps a call to the airline itself would be in order. my concern is that i will not be taken seriously about what could possibly be an open invatation for a group of terrorists to hijack another passenger airliner.
i would really appreciate any thoghts or ideas on how to handle this perplexing problem.
Not to demean your powers of observation, but you can bet your ass that if you thought if it, then at least a few terrorists have also thought of it. Whatever else you and I might think of them, these are not (for the most part) stupid people.
So, yes, report it. Report it to whomever you can get ahold of. If they don’t do anything about it and you REALLY want to do something about it, call your local (or local to the airport) TV news. They’re usually more then happy to take on something like that.
I’d contact Homeland Security, not the FBI. List of state offices here.
But actually (IMHO territory now), I personally wouldn’t, because in the current paranoid, politically charged climate, you’d run the risk of bringing down intense official scrutiny upon yourself.
It would help if you gave us a bit more information, is this gap at the airport or on the plane. Is it at all airports? If it’s at just one place they it’s possible it’s a lapse and I’d inform security at that airport.
If it’s everywhere then it’s likely not a problem, but feel free to write to everyone mentioned in this thread. Don’t identify yourself, just on the off chance the threat is real and it gets exploited which will make your letter seem very suspicious.
You should understand that airport security isn’t perfect, it’s a balance between security and keeping things moving. It’s actually pretty easy to get prohibited stuff past security or to breach security in other ways. Actually turning that breach into a successful hijacking is much more difficult due to new security controls on the planes themselves.
Finally you could consider that the gap is deliberate. The apparent security gap is actually well monitored and protected but just appears not to be in an effort to trap people up to no good.
Indeed, it’s a tricky question. Yes, you should tell Homebuilt Security what you saw, but those folks are a jumpy lot. Ask a lawyer in your home town for advice before you do anything. Leave word with someone you trust in case you are extraordinarily rendered. :eek:
actually the gap is on the plane, not at the airport, and i was only on one carrier ,so i do not know if this situation i saw exists on other carriers.i am not certain of whose jurisdiction this falls under. thank you for the replies, iwill let you know my course of action.
i called the f.b.i. main office in d.c., from them i was told to call t.s.a., tried to call the t.s.a. number, got no answer. i called f.b.i. back, this time i was asked a few questions , then transferred to the local offic, in seattle. my take is that the agent i spoke to didn’t take what i was saying serioudly enough to make a report.
nadahappycamper
I don’t see why you can’t tell us. I can think of a few security wholes off hand to, and if you know about them terrorists probably do to. Given that and the fact that its not to likely they will attack the same way again I don’t see why its hard to tell us. Several people here know a lot about aircraft and we even have pilots who are a little better suited to tell if you such a thing is possible or not.