The Halfway Point

Bill Davidsen

Jan 13, 2005

No Fly Zone

I wrote a lovely article for the 11^th, about really bad city government in several upstate New York towns. But just before I sent it out, I discovered that the newspaper article I was using as source material had a factual error. So late mailing this time, but hopefully all true.

Question: since I'm already off the usual format, should this mailing list, around for about 15 years, be converted to a “blog” to be up-to-date? Yes or no to halfway@tmr.com, I'll assume if you don't answer you don't care...

A new word for it: a Muslim commentator on NPR suggested that the correct term for terrorist activities is not jihad, which means “a holy striving” I'm told, but rather hiraba, which means “a crime against society.” I confess my knowledge of Islam comes from reading an English translation of the Koran a decade or so ago, but that sounds a lot more like the translation, and the good qualities of a man I remember.

I see that British Air flight 145 was turned around after going at least halfway to the USA from Europe, due to a passenger on the infamous No Fly List of people not allowed on airplanes in the USA. News reports indicated that the flight was to be diverted to Portland Maine, and that rather than do that the plane turned back and returned to Europe.

Where do I start with reasons why that sounds really stupid? First, why divert the plane when the passenger could have been taken into custody at the gate in New York City without inconveniencing the other passengers? If the passenger could be detained in Maine, why not New York? And then there's the question of why BA didn't comply and land the plane in Portland. It would have been cheaper, safer, and easier for the passengers to divert and let the authorities take over. Note that I do realize BA may have a policy of not deplaning passengers where they will be detained, as a human rights policy. If so, why didn't they just say so in the first place?

The whole idea of the no fly list is well-intentioned but unlikely to be particularly effective. Unless a person on the list (a) has a unique name, and (b) is so incompetent they don't use fake ID with another name, does it help? I note that Senator Edward “Teddy” Kennedy was denied boarding because his name was on the no fly list. Perhaps he really was on the list, just so the Republicans could tick him off. The list may work reasonably well if the people have names which are unusual, but Edward Kennedy? That's not remotely unique, and possibly hundreds of Edward Kennedys may have been denied boarding, and only one could call the department of Homeland Security on a Friday evening and get action. I don't doubt that the list stops many people, but are we safer?

You may ask, “How do I check if I'm on the list?” The answer is that you buy a plane ticket, and if you're taken into custody without a warrant and you're questioned by muscular men who live on a diet of garlic who insist you tell them where Osama Bin Laden is hiding, then you know you're on the list. For security's sake you can't just check, of course.

You might also ask, “How do I get off the list?” and the answer is that if you're a senator call Homeland Security, otherwise start contacting someone who is a senator, and hope they care. I can't find any indication that there's a way to check the list or get off it for a private citizen. There certainly doesn't seem to be a form on some web site like nofly.gov.

And finally you ask “Does this make us safe?” and the answer is that if you keep enough people off enough planes, even chosen at random, sooner or later you will stop someone who's a bad guy. Even a blind pig finds a truffle once in a while. Whether this actually makes you, or the country as a whole, safer is debatable.

If you are exposed to any news at all, you will see that many airlines are in financial trouble. One reason mentioned is that they are “over capacity,” a fancy way of saying that they have too many flights or too few passengers. And part of the cause of that is that flying is no fun any more. We used to be able to decide on the spur of the moment to fly from Albany NY to New York City, or Boston, for dinner. Drive to the airport, park, buy a ticket, fly out, take a cab into town, and be ordering dinner in 90 minutes or so, two hours tops. I now consider it a good flight if I get through security in 90 minutes!

And if you have luggage? Your luggage flies unlocked now, so anyone can open it and steal what they want, or worse yet put something in which will cause no end of trouble. Now the airlines work with a system which only works if everyone in the airport is totally honest. Including the same baggage handlers who staged a sick-out and left 10000 people without their luggage at Christmas. Do you think there are disgruntled employees there?

I've actually found a cure for that, take a gun. I'm not kidding, if you pack a gun in your luggage you go right to the head of the line, your luggage is hand inspected while you watch, and then you not only get to lock it, you are required to lock it. And it gets very carefully tracked every step of the way, or so I'm told. Having lost a casket (occupied) once and been told “luggage looks alike” tracking is good.

Enjoy your next flight, now.