David M. Payne

I read a little about how easy it still is to fly packages by air in the US. I think that shippers with access to air shipping will be targeted by the terrorists, who will gain entrance with regular business shipments designed to lull the shippers into a false sense of security, and set the stage for packages with bombs in them. As I work in a part of the US economy that deals in shipping materials, I see the flaw that will allow al Quaida to put bombs aboard aircraft and detonate them with remote controls or timers. There has been some talk about this in defense circles and the media, but not much. Unfortunately it will be easy for them to do this, as there are still only cursory inspections of many packages now. It would be easy to plan and execute a scheme whereby several bombs can be in the air and detonated at the same time, and the resulting death and destruction will be yet another blow to our people and economy. Lets hope this one doesn�t come to pass.

David

DarkBronzePlant

I doubt it. It would result in the death of only a few pilots and the loss of a few aircraft. Not the type of widespread terror that al Qaida would hope to cause. Unless you're talking about nuclear-type bombs. In which case, what would the air-delivery planes be needed for?

ex-idaho

Actually the type of transport that is most risky is the empty space available on commercial passenger flights. For example, Northwest Airlines is the largest transporter of infant chickens in the US and Delta is the second largest carrier of US Mail. The space left over in the cargo area of commercial jets is being filled with non-passenger goods like mail and other items.

David M. Payne

This is what I was talking about, not so much the dedicated airfreight cargo planes, but the passenger planes. They carry a lot of misc. freight in addition to the passengers and their luggage. Most parcel air mail from the post office is banned anyway now thanks to 9/11, but there are plenty of other shippers that use the excess cargo available on commercial air passenger planes to move their packages.

David

DarkBronzePlant

Oh. Well, then, quit giving al Qaida more ideas!

David M. Payne

They think al Quaida already has this in the planning stage according to the article I read, the problem is stopping them from carrying out the plan. You have no idea just how many shippers there are in the US who use airliners to send packages.

David

John Hancock

Interestingly the Bush Administration is preventing the screening of commercial cargo on passenger aircraft. Seems their concerned about the cost adverse effects on the economy.

John Hancock
__________________
"Fascism,should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." Mussolini

David M. Payne

I wonder what the cost benefit analysis would be after a few planes blew up in the air?

David

Autonemesis

But certainly somebody does, or several somebodies do collectively. The airlines know who they are, surely. Use some of that Homeland security budget to start helping those shippers transition to using commercial freight carriers exclusively.

Hubble head

But then the passenger airline's would scream bloody murder "Give us back our mail money, waaaaaahhhhh". Corporate welfare would be given to bail them out or shut their lobbyists up. Either way, I bet we still pay more to fly.