jbleazard@sympatico.ca wrote:
: Hey Jon,
: Just wanted to check... is your brother at home now? I know he was going to
: school in NYC at one point.
Nope, he's down in Florida right now; looking for a teaching job in
Boca Raton. Thanks for your concern though. :-) He did just fly up
and back a couple of weeks ago to be the best man in a friend's wedding
though; kinda makes you think. :-P (Although I'd almost feel sorry for
the terrorist who tries to hijack a plane with my brother aboard...) ;-)
Speaking of which, that's one thing that kind've has me baffled;
obviously the details are sketchy and we may never know what actually
happened, but APPARENTLY these hijackers took the planes with nothing
more than knives and cardboard cutters??? A couple of guys with knives
vs 60-90 people? Hindsight is 20/20 and sitting here behind a computer
screen its easy to criticize, but if you're going to die anyway, what
have you got to lose? Take 'em out; or die trying... I suspect perhaps
the passengers thought it was a "routine" hijacking, maybe they'd sit
on the runway for a few hours before they were rescued. ? All just
useless speculation at this point though. Hopefully some lessons will
be learned from this though so its not a total waste. A couple of
things that come to mind... Perhaps every plane should be equipped
with weapons of some sort, accessible only by the crew? Even rubber
bullets or non-lethal types of weapons would probably be enough.
Also, and this one is even more obvious... Why is it possible for the
bulkhead between the cabin and the pilots to be breached? If the
hijackers can't get into the cabin, the plane isn't going anywhere.
I seem to recall several years back Paul Harvey was reporting
on a hijacking, and kept repeating the word "gas" several times during
the story. If the cockpit was able to be physically isolated from the
rest of the cabin and the plane were equipped with a system to release
gas into the cabin to put everyone to sleep, the plane could be landed
safely and the terrorists would wake up in a jail cell somewhere.
Anyway, its all just stupid speculation... What a day! :-( It still
hasn't really sunk in for me; I keep expecting the credits to roll.
My condolences to everyone directly affected, and best of luck to those
involved with the rescue efforts.
Dak content: ...not important right now.
---Jon-
.---- Jon Steiger ------ jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -----. | I'm the: AOPA, DoD, EAA, NMA, NRA, SPA, USUA. Rec & UL Pilot - SEL | | '70 Barracuda, '92 Ram 4x4, '96 Dakota, '96 Intruder 1400, '96 FireFly | `----------------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com ----'
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