Why is all the technology needed?

Before takeoff: lock pilots securely in cockpit.
During flight: keep it locked at all times.
After landing: unlock cockpit when all passengers are gone.

Simple.

Well then how do the pilots get their coffee?

The same way the passengers get their milk. They don't.

what if they have to use the bathroom?

Why is all the technology needed?

Before takeoff: lock pilots securely in cockpit.
During flight: keep it locked at all times.
After landing: unlock cockpit when all passengers are gone.

Simple.

Why the fuck didn't they institute that YEARS ago??? My bag might not still be in Philly.

Terrorists will just shift to other things. Like subways...

as long as they stay away from quiznos black angus, thats fine with me.....

as long as they stay away from quiznos black angus, thats fine with me.....

a real baggage/cargo screening system.

Can technology create a non-hijackable plane?

European researchers aim to bring that vision closer to reality by 2008 through an ambitious security program to combat on-board threats in an industry left reeling this week by a security scare that raised the spectre of September 11.

On Thursday, British police said they had foiled a plot to blow up aircraft mid-flight between Britain and the United States in what Washington said might have been an attempted al-Qaeda operation.

Since September 11, the idea that civilian planes can be used as weapons has taken hold globally, spawning increased security measures in airports around the world.

The researchers aim to create a "last barrier to attacks" on planes in flight.

Among the non-hijackable plane's features: computer systems designed to spot suspicious passenger behaviour, and a collision avoidance system that will correct the plane's trajectory to prevent it from being steered into a building or mountain.

The researchers are also investigating the possibility - although they say it is probably some 15 years away - of developing an on-board computer that could guide the plane automatically to the nearest airport, in the event of a hijack.

"You never reach zero level of threat, no risk," said program coordinator Daniel Gaultier of French technology group SAGEM Defense Securite, a unit of Safran.

"But if you equip planes with on-board electronics, it will make them very, very difficult to hijack."

The four-year, 35.8 million euro ($A59.8 million) project, called SAFEE or Security of Aircraft in the Future European Environment, was launched in February 2004.

Among those taking part are aircraft maker Airbus, its parents EADS and BAE Systems, as well as Thales and Siemens. The European Commission is contributing 19.5 million euros ($A32.5 million).

Omer Laviv of Athena GS3, an Israeli company taking part in the project, said the system might be commercially available around 2010 to 2012.

SAFEE goes beyond the limited on-board improvements made since September 11 - like reinforced cockpit doors and the deployment of sky marshals.

Proposed enhancements include:

- A chip-based system to allocate matching tags to passengers and their luggage, ensuring both are on board and removing the need for stewards to count passengers manually.

- Cameras at check-in desks and at the entrance to the plane, in order to verify with biometric imaging that the person getting on board is the same as the one who checked in.

- An "electronic nose" to check passengers for traces of explosives at the final ground check before boarding.

- An Onboard Threat Detection System (OTDS) to process information from video and audio sensors throughout the cabin and detect any erratic passenger behaviour.

- A Threat Assessment and Response Management System (TARMS) to assemble all information and propose an appropriate response to the pilot via a computer screen located at his side.

- A Data Protection System to secure all communications, including conversations between the cockpit and ground control.

- A secure cockpit door with a biometric system that recognises authorised crew by their fingerprints, together with a camera to check they are not opening it under duress.

- An automatic collision avoidance system to correct the plane's course if it strays from a permitted trajectory.

In a September 11-style hijack scenario, for example, the TARMS system would detect that the plane was on course to plough into buildings and use biometric fingerprint sensors to check whether the pilot or an intruder was at the controls.

"If there is a terrorist in control or the pilot is not aware of this (false) trajectory, the TARMS decides to avoid the obstacle so there is an automatic control of the plane," Gaultier said.

The avoidance system would also kick in if the pilot, despite verifying his identity, persisted in the false course.

Given its complexity, the SAFEE project raises legal and ethical issues which are themselves a key part of the research.

They include whether people will find it acceptable to be minutely observed by sensors throughout their flight, recording everything from their conversations to their toilet visits.

With help from sources including security agencies and behavioural psychologists, researchers are building a database of potentially suspicious traits for computers to detect.

"It could be someone who's using their mobile phone when they shouldn't be, or trying to light up a cigarette. But it could also be something much more extreme, it could be a potential terrorist," said James Ferryman, a scientist at Britain's Reading University who is working on SAFEE.

The sensitivity of the system could be adjusted depending on factors like the general threat level, he said.

Gaultier conceded the system could generate false alarms, but said the crew and pilot would remain in ultimate control, deciding if the threat was real.

The improved passenger surveillance, researchers say, will be an important advantage on larger planes such as the Airbus A380, capable of carrying 550 people.

They believe passengers will be ready to accept the trade-off of less privacy for the sake of greater safety.

"We have to show it's not Big Brother watching you, it's Big Brother looking after you," Ferryman said.

Researchers say it is too early to judge the price of equipping a plane with SAFEE, but they are working closely with a user group including airlines like Air France-KLM.

The issue is part of a wider debate within the industry, with airlines calling on governments to underwrite security costs.

"Suicide terrorism is not an issue for the airlines, it shouldn't be their responsibility," said Philip Baum, editor of Aviation Security International magazine.

"It is an attack, actually, against the state and it's part of a national defence, and therefore we need to fund this accordingly."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060810/ts_ ... y_air_dc_2

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There is another article that points out that people would be trading privacy for security but I don't see it as that big of a deal. As long as they don't have the cameras in the bathrooms, it's fine by me, because there's really nothing that i'd do on an airplane that i wouldn't feel comfortable doing while someone was watching me on a camera.

Proper screening would be one person putting their baggage through the screening process at a time and somebody actually checking what was in it, not a quick glance based on what might be dangerous.

Just my 2 cents

TSA says shoe X-rays can detect bombs
By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer
50 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The government sought to assure airline travelers Tuesday that X-raying shoes at security checkpoints was a reliable way of detecting improvised bombs, a claim contradicted by a Department of Homeland Security study.

"Screening shoes by X-ray is an effective method of identifying any type of anomaly, including explosives," Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley said at a news conference at Washington's Reagan National Airport.

A study by the Homeland Security Department, obtained by The Associated Press, states that X-ray images "do not provide the information necessary to effect detection of explosives."

But under new orders this week, all airline passengers must put their shoes through X-ray machines before boarding their flights.

A scientist who has studied the issue said the truth lies somewhere between the study's findings that X-ray machines can't detect bombs and Hawley's assertion that they can.

Richard Lanza, senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the X-ray image doesn't identify what a gel or a liquid is made of. However, he said, screeners can "look at the image and connect regions that look the same in density and shape."

It's not a foolproof method, but it is often effective, he said.

"Nothing is 100 percent," Lanza said. "But if the bad guys think you have a good shot at discovering it, they'll do something different."

Hawley said 31,000 screeners have been specially trained to determine if a shoe has been tampered with when they look at its X-ray image.

"It does take the human brain to make the interpretation on X-ray, but it is, frankly, not the most difficult thing we have to do to find potential shoe bombs," Hawley said.

He displayed copies of X-ray images of two pairs of shoes — one with no explosive device and one worn by Richard Reid, who was arrested aboard a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 when he tried to ignite a bomb in his shoe.

"You can see very clearly the difference between a shoe with an explosive and one without," Hawley said.

But the Homeland Security Department said in its April 2005 report that a screener's ability to detect improvised explosive devices "is not a matter of proper training, reinforcement or motivation." The report is titled "Systems Engineering Study of Civil Aviation Security — Phase I."

The report cited studies that show a person who has made or carried a bomb is likely to have traces of explosives residue on his hand. The report recommended that screeners use a technology called explosives trace detection, or ETD, on the shoes and hands of passengers who arouse suspicion or are chosen randomly for more screening.

ETD is commonly used at airports by TSA screeners, who use a dry pad on the end of a wand to wipe a surface — baggage, shoes, clothing. They then put the pad into an ion mobility spectrometer that can detect traces of explosives.

The TSA's new screening procedures were ordered after British police last week broke up a terrorist plot to assemble and detonate bombs aboard as many as 10 flights from Britain to the United States.

Airline passengers can no longer carry liquids and gels into airline passenger cabins. Their carryon luggage is searched by hand more, and they're subject to random double screening at boarding gates.

On Sunday, the TSA made it mandatory for shoes to be run through X-ray machines as passengers go through metal detectors. The checks were begun in late 2001, after Reid's arrest, and have been optional for several years.

Why is all the technology needed?

Before takeoff: lock pilots securely in cockpit.
During flight: keep it locked at all times.
After landing: unlock cockpit when all passengers are gone.

Simple.