Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/johnband/sbbs.johnband.org/index.php:1) in /home/johnband/sbbs.johnband.org/wp-includes/feed-rss2-comments.php on line 8
Comments on: Airplane! http://sbbs.johnband.org/2004/07/airplane/ As fair-minded and non-partisan as Torquemada. Wed, 07 Mar 2012 07:16:20 +0000 hourly 1 By: Chris Lightfoot http://sbbs.johnband.org/2004/07/airplane/#comment-243 Sat, 10 Jul 2004 11:25:00 +0000 http://sbbs.johnband.org/?p=275#comment-243 [ach, hit "submit" too soon.]

I flew from Dubai a little while ago and encountered two utterly dumb bits of airport security: (a) they sold food processors — with sharp metal blades three or four inches long — in Duty Free, after confiscating everyone’s toenail clippers at security; (b) the pilots of our flight being X-rayed repeatedly on entry to the departure lounge, until the offending shoes were inspected manually and waved through.

If the pilot wants to destroy the aeroplane, he has easier ways to do it than packing his shoes with explosives….

"flying is around a hundred times safer per kilometre travelled [than a car]"

— be very careful. Risks in flying don’t scale strongly with kilometers travelled, because most air crashes happen on takeoff and landing. Per journey the safety figures don’t show anything like that ratio.

]]> By: Chris Lightfoot http://sbbs.johnband.org/2004/07/airplane/#comment-242 Sat, 10 Jul 2004 11:19:00 +0000 http://sbbs.johnband.org/?p=275#comment-242 As with your previous comment on this, yeah, airport security has nothing to do with security and lots to do with reassuring the travelling public. How many times have you seen a news story about a bomb being discovered in someone’s luggage, compared to how many times you’ve heard of a plane being blown up by a bomb?

]]>