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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
The technology is simple: at any time an airplane's course or behavior is deemed suspicious, the cockpit controls are overridden by the closest Air Traffic Control center (obviously with appropriate authorization) and the plane put into level flight until the situation can be resolved.
The problem with such a system is that it can be hacked. Remotely controlling a plane would require lots of computer software and computer networking, which is complicated and inherently buggy and subject to hacking. Moreover, the government gets its software from private companies who write government software as a revenue stream (rather than for the sake of engineering excellence or technological innovation). Generally speaking, those companies do not tend to attract the best minds in computer science: Silicon Valley and academia do, or even the NSA or Pentagon. It is very rare for someone good at CS to say "hmm, I think I'll move to Ohio to work for Diebold". They say "Hmm, I think I'll move to San Francisco to work for Google," or "I think I'll move to DC to work on crypto for the government".
It's a good idea in concept, but it would be like Diebold voting machines, only with the potential for death and destruction. Alas.
"...the real problem is rarely if ever addressed: how do we effect a solution that will guarantee an airplane will never again be flown into a building?"
Robert A. Heinlein wrote an article called "The Billion-Dollar Eye" discussing ongoing plans to create an automated system to control aircraft across the country. This system was being considered in Congress. Unfortunately it was considered too expensive to implement.
Heinlein wrote the article in 1948. He was never able to get it published.
On a recent trip to the Bay Area, I was amazed at how much better the San Jose screening area ran with just a few differences from the norm.
They had one enormous queue, with just a few screening stations that ran _fast_. I think the lines ran fast in large part because they had people working full-time to remove buckets from the X-ray belt and get them out of the way. And they had -- get this, it's crazy! -- they had BENCHES right next to the belts.
I'm pretty sure that at airports where this does not happen, they have a guy at every other screening station whose job it is to laugh at the poor schmucks sliding around on the waxed floor trying to get their shoes on.
Most of us are too afraid to say or do anything for fear of jail time; antagonizing the TSA puts one in the position of being the subject of an inquisition. I had an experience in Denver Internation Airport that seems mild compared to Smith's experience, but it's not one I care to repeat.
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/mahlu002/oneday/2008/02/boycott_air_travel.html
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/mahlu002/oneday/2008/02/boycott_air_travel_part_ii.html
But my personal TSA low point came last December, flying back to Austin from Chicago-Midway. I've gotten to the point where I wear loafers when I'm flying, as it makes getting in and out of my shoes so much quicker. But never before had anyone asked that I take my son's shoes off--at the time, he was 11 months old. Even if I'd wanted to pack C4 into the soles of his shoes, I couldn't have hidden enough to scorch the seat. So now I not only have to put my shoes back on, but my squirmy baby's back on too. For no good reason.
And while I'm thinking about knives, when we were delayed in Cincinnati on another flight, we spent our meal vouchers at one of the nicer airport restaurants. Where I couldn't get a proper steak knife, because regulations prohibited steak knives behind security. On the upside, at least they went out of their way to make their steaks extra-tender, but it seems like there are better ways of handling that, as well...like having the server collect any sharp knives when the check is paid and make sure he/she has the same number he served.
But it's no wonder, really, that there's no serious protest. Who wants to risk rotting in an airport holding facility and missing their flight? The government has made damn sure that the price of disobedience outweighs the annoyance. They've got us by the short and curlies and they darn well know it!
to reply:
******This is probably the most un-pc comment I'll ever make on here...
But it is quite clear that many (not all) "minorities" employed by the TSA now have their dream job: they get decent salaries, government benefits and most importantly the opportunity to yell at and harass caucasian business travelers for hours at a time w/o any fear of repercussion.
I fly out of Atlanta and Newark frequently, a lot of these "officers" are complete thugs, the badges and the new signs Smith mentions are only going to make them worse.******
The white people at TSA checkpoints are just as dumb.
The last time my wife and I flew to Europe the TSA folks confiscated a small plastic butter knife that my wife kept in her carry-on bag; it was part of our travel picnic kit. When we were served a meal on the flight every passenger was provided plastic cutlery, including a small plastic butter knife that was indistinguishable from the item deemed to be a potential weapon by the TSA...
The really bizarre part about all of this is that your own government was behind the 9/11 attacks which they used as a pretext for invading Iraq, giving the CIA back all of its excessive powers, boosting defence funding and taking away civil liberties that no American thought they would ever have to give up (they have a different pretext for attacking Iran but you catch my drift.)And while the public are treated as if they're all potential criminals in the airports and elsewhere, the real criminals sit in the White House planning their next crime. There's no logic to any of it (the butter knife a case in point) but why would there be? Tyrants never behave logically and they won't stop doing any of this until their hands are removed from the levers of government power. Even then, the evil they've done will live after them, as Shakespeare put it, for a very long time. But if you think all of this is bad just wait until America or Israel attacks Iran. Iran will respond with missiles targeted at Israel and the Straits of Hormuz will be closed, stopping the movement of 40% of oil. Horse and cart, anyone? I'm gobsmacked that Salon isn't even referring to any of this or to the covert CIA operations being carried out in Iran or to the fact that the USA has now decided it will 'pursue' Taliban into Pakistan. Stop worrying about butter knives and focus. Before they leave office Bush and Cheney who gave you the Butter Knife Police and the War On Terror, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo want to give you a present. World War III. One of the few people who tried to stand up to them over their plans for Iran was the head of the navy -and he was forced to resign for the crime of being a patriot. The Air Force is, of course, already on board with the administration. They have been for a long time. Why only have two unwinnable and unaffordable wars when you can have three or even four? As they say in the trade -Bargain!All this gang of criminals will leave behind them is a smoking economic ruin. Just like Hitler. Oh, but I forgot. The economy's not in trouble. The elderly Dr. Phil Gramm said so. And pigs might fly. Speaking of which, the Democrats (misnomer) voted for this Iran fiasco because they were afraid the Israel lobby would go after them if they didn't. Now, that's leadership.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
