airline safety
i just got back from london. the trip was fine. it was a business trip, so it wasn't the most fun thing ever. i hate to fly, so the most eventful times, the times i am most on edge, are when i'm at the airport. and apparently both virgin airlines and the employees at jfk are doing their best to make me continue to be nervous when i fly.
at jfk, they pretend to have serious security. my boss is a smoker, and her matches were confiscated as being dangerous and not suitable for her carry-on luggage. that's fine. i'd rather have everything conficsated than find that weapons have been carried onto my flight. interesting, then, that i notice the guy ahead of me at the security checkpoint put a box cutter knife in the little plastic tray with his loose change. more interesting that the security guard wasn't planning to look in that plastic tray and see what the gentleman had emptied from his pockets. he was in the process of handing the gentleman his knife when i asked "you're not giving him back his knife, are you!?!" the security officer looked in the tray, realized he was about to let someone take a knife into the international boarding area, and told the gentleman that he would have to confiscate the knife. to which the guy replied "but i work here" and held up some flimsy laminated card on a chain around his neck. the security guy escorted the guy and his knife to a second set of security officers, glancing at me every so often. i think they probably gave the dude his knife back. safety!
today, on my way home from london, we were informed by the captain that the flight attendants would be doing a head count of the entire plane, because they and the ground crew seemed to have conflicting numbers of how many passengers were on the flight. so after we were locked into the plane, the flight attendants counted us. 3 times. somehow, somewhere, someone may or may not have gotten onto our plane unauthorised. or someone checked bags but didn't board the plane. or the ground crew just couldn't count. this does not inspire confidence... then we're informed that our departure will be further delayed because the air traffic control computer system wasn't working, so flights were delayed as the air traffic control was working manually. why don't i trust this? i guess that if the pilot and crew feel comfortable with this, i should too, but i just can't feel ok with this. these are big planes. lots of big planes. the computer system was created for a reason. do the air traffic controllers know what they're doing without the computer system?
i made it home safely. i'd rather not get on another plane any time soon.
at jfk, they pretend to have serious security. my boss is a smoker, and her matches were confiscated as being dangerous and not suitable for her carry-on luggage. that's fine. i'd rather have everything conficsated than find that weapons have been carried onto my flight. interesting, then, that i notice the guy ahead of me at the security checkpoint put a box cutter knife in the little plastic tray with his loose change. more interesting that the security guard wasn't planning to look in that plastic tray and see what the gentleman had emptied from his pockets. he was in the process of handing the gentleman his knife when i asked "you're not giving him back his knife, are you!?!" the security officer looked in the tray, realized he was about to let someone take a knife into the international boarding area, and told the gentleman that he would have to confiscate the knife. to which the guy replied "but i work here" and held up some flimsy laminated card on a chain around his neck. the security guy escorted the guy and his knife to a second set of security officers, glancing at me every so often. i think they probably gave the dude his knife back. safety!
today, on my way home from london, we were informed by the captain that the flight attendants would be doing a head count of the entire plane, because they and the ground crew seemed to have conflicting numbers of how many passengers were on the flight. so after we were locked into the plane, the flight attendants counted us. 3 times. somehow, somewhere, someone may or may not have gotten onto our plane unauthorised. or someone checked bags but didn't board the plane. or the ground crew just couldn't count. this does not inspire confidence... then we're informed that our departure will be further delayed because the air traffic control computer system wasn't working, so flights were delayed as the air traffic control was working manually. why don't i trust this? i guess that if the pilot and crew feel comfortable with this, i should too, but i just can't feel ok with this. these are big planes. lots of big planes. the computer system was created for a reason. do the air traffic controllers know what they're doing without the computer system?
i made it home safely. i'd rather not get on another plane any time soon.
posted by cat at 4:14 PM
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