I fundamentally believe that Mr. Smith brings to light some very sound and salient points regarding organized, or rather, disorganized, security at airports. Unfortunately, I do not know if I fully agree with him regarding the handling of passenger Alpizar.

Mr Smith writes, “According to reports, shortly after the couple had taken their seats in the American Airlines Boeing 757, Alpizar began acting erratically: jumping up, shouting and claiming to have a bomb. He was shot after running up the aisle toward the cockpit, collapsing into the jetway after ignoring orders to get down, and reaching into a bag for what the marshals took to be a weapon or explosive device.”

When Richard Reid attempted to detonate an explosive contained within his shoe, it was happenstance and split-second timing that allowed such a potential tragedy to be averted during that particular flight.

I do not believe the air marshal(s) acted out of line. I submit to you, if you were on board that, how would you have felt witnessing someone acting as Mr. Alpizar did? Now it’s very easy for all of us to be armchair quarterbacks in these instances and say, “well this should have been done, or that should have been done,” AFTER the fact. The fact remains that Mr. Alpizar, in fact, did terrorize passengers on this plane because of what he did or possibly said. I’m sure some of these passengers thought they were going to die.

“Were the marshals justified in shooting?” Mr. Smith writes. Absolutely I say. The purpose of the air marshals is to prevent terrorism on planes and minimize the threat. Mr. Alpizar not only terrorized passengers on this plane, he did not head air marshal’s demands to get down.

“He was shot after running up the aisle toward the cockpit, collapsing into the jetway after ignoring orders to get down, and reaching into a bag for what the marshals took to be a weapon or explosive device,” Mr. Smith writes.

Mr. Alpizar was killed because he was a terrorist. He terrorized passengers and crew into believing they were going to die at his hands.

We live in a time where, whether we like it or not, for a prescribed period of time, maybe for the rest of our lives, whereby we have to abide by certain rules apply where air, bus, ship, or, train travel are concerned. We live in a period of fear and heightened anxieties. We have witnessed people strapping explosives to their persons and breeze in to open markets, or transportation and blow themselves and other up. Did any or all the hijackers of all the planes on 9/11 suffer from mental instability?

I’m not happy about all the security I have to go through at airports. It’s an absolute pain and depending on the time of day I fly, the delays could be overwhelming. The fact remains, security must continue to become perfected and passengers must re-adjust their lives around the climate we live in.

all i can think of concerning the story about the shooting of the passenger in miami is oh my god i didnt realize that mentally ill people fly too and they sometime do not take their medication. this scares me. i think about the woman who was pushed to her death in the subway due to same type of situation. thats the reality here not language miscommunitation or security training. next time i fly i will have yet one more thing to worry about, medications and passengers. and yeah the bomb thing is scary too. get your priorities straight for the rest of us.

The killing of a man with bi-polar disease has deeper ramifications though tragic it was.

But something larger lurks. For one thing, security is all backwards. They never look at you, your eyes, your face, but focus almost entirely on the bags going through and are big, really big, about taking off your shoes. How about looking at you, the person, your/my eyes, face, demeanor,and vibe are surely the most telling signs of someone who is dangerous.

I look at everyone on flights I take. If someone were acting creepy, I'd look into her/his face before boarding the plane and if, this actually happened, he or she was reading a book on "How to Make A Bomb" I report this immediately.

That no one seems to see us as persons, but focus rather on our boarding accoutrements seems ass-backwards. I don't understand why we can't have psychologists or psychics or maybe just savvy folks who ask questions about ourselves, in the spirit of "Did you take your medications" or "What are you going to xxx for" ... all the while checking us out. As persons, not as backbacks.

In this case, the lack of meds and the murdered man's bi-polar disease could have been discussed with security and understood, rather than killing him before anyone knew his condition. Tragic, that.

I fly a lot. Often I'm pullled off the line to get wanded and I'm over 60, so in no way fit the profile, vague as that might be, for a terrorist. This poor man and his wife should have had the chance to tell the Wand People what might happen given his condition. But I bet they only checked his shoes.

Isn't there something inhumane not to say dangerous in the current air/security/checks. It's not the hassle I mind. It's the lack of human interaction, imo: the only way to get real clues, (in addition to the material checks). Asking questions of us flyers would be far more effective than simply removing clothing and iPods and making decisions based on nothing psychological is my point.

The man killed might in an mini-interview have been encouraged to take his medications. But no, he was let through because he passed the physical test, which leaves out far too much.

"It's all in the eyes" someone once said to me about terror. In the vibe too." That is precisely what the security folks pay no attention. If someone is creepy, I reported her or him, because what is in the mind that is what should be checked.

To take a mentally deranged man, and sure, he and his wife should have made sure his meds were working, wasn't known before he boarded. Checking his shoes, of course, not himself. I hink there should be at every airport at every security check: Someone wise about psychology and not just bags and shoes.

Tragic and not entirely the security's fault, but his murder is endemic of how crazy it is to not relate to the person, but belongings. Only the belongings carried on, which is another travesty.

Look: terrorists are different than you or me. Wasteful, shameful, and sad that in this country there is only a focus on the things not us as humans. Which is unfortunately who we are as a people even outside airports.