Noting that it is taken for granted now a days that airplanes must have extreme security because they are prime targets for terrs.
But my question is why? What about planes seemed to attract “terrorists” and such so much? I would also mention that most hijackings were not suicidal, but for the purpose of taking hostages. Why always planes, and not say, Greyhound buses? Ships?
Most hijackings have the goal of transporting terrorists to a sympathetic country. That’s rather hard to accomplish by commandeering a tandem bicycle.
Airplanes offer a contained environment filled with soft targets that can’t escape and can’t be rescued.
Once a plane is on the ground, it’s just another vehicle. That’s when the anti-terrorist forces blow the snot out of the bad guys. Ships have been done.
Because they are big and people are trapped. Hijack a Greyhound and you still could bust a window and jump out. Hijack a plane, and well everyone in it is stuck.
But think back Jesse James robbed trains? Covered Wagons were robbed and held hostage. Pirates ransomed ships. (And are still doing it)
So it’s just that Jets and Planes offere the biggest amount of media exposure and trap the most people, making for good drama.
Think about it, the Israeli athletes were taking AT the Olympics not before or after the games ended
A further point on modern-day piracy - the ships being taken at the moment generally have a small number of people on board. Taking full control of one with thousands of passengers would be much more difficult than gaining control of a plane, because you don’t have everybody in one confined space. (Note that even with the Achille Lauro, only 100 or so passengers were on board.)
The things that scares people most is loss of control and catastrophic failure. Airplanes combine both in a big way.
All you have to do is look at their history. Automobiles kill tens of thousands every year in the U.S. If 100 die in a plane crash, it’s headline news across the country. This has been true since the beginning of airlines.
It doesn’t take much imagination to realize how vulnerable an airplane is while in flight or what the symbolism of endangering one is. Airlines have been hijacked for a long time. Look at this list of hijackings to Cuba. Back in the late 60s this was something on the news all the time. Every comedian did hijacking jokes.
If you want money, hijack a ship. If you want headlines, hijack a plane.
Beyond what Exapno Mapcase said, airplane crashes and accidents tend to be spectacular and violent far beyond most other things except for truck bombings and similar things (terrorists’ other stock-in-trade).
I mean, you wreck a Greyhound bus full of 100 people, and it’s just another bus wreck. You crash a 737 with 100 people on board, and it’s a huge fireball, with lots of stuff destroyed on the ground in all likelihood.
As above - the terrorists goal is publicity. Everything else is secondary. If they thought they could get more publicity with a bake sale, we’d be assaulted with offers of cupcakes outside the mall.
When the Chechyans decided to hijack a building Beslan school siege - Wikipedia , they chose a school, not a warehouse. Why? More publicity.
A plane is mobile and it’s a lot more isolated than a train or bus or building. Delta Force or Swat isn’t going to assault and retake a plane in mid-flight. And it’s difficult, if not impossible, to crash anything other than a plane into the White House.