Hitchens: The truth about airplane security measures

Re:Hitchens: The truth about airplane security measures by brown9-2 on Tuesday December 29, 2009 @04:28PM (#1021361)

For many years after the explosion of the TWA plane over Long Island (a disaster that was later found to have nothing at all to do with international religious nihilism), you could not board an aircraft without being asked whether you had packed your own bags and had them under your control at all times.

Is this true? TWA Flight 800 crashed in 1996. Weren't screeners asking passengers if they packed their own luggage before this?

I believe Hitchens is also wrong on the second point here:

These two questions are the very ones to which a would-be hijacker or bomber would honestly and logically have to answer "yes." But answering "yes" to both was a condition of being allowed on the plane! Eventually, that heroic piece of stupidity was dropped as well.

My understanding was always that this question was designed to weed out any cases where a second party might have covertly sneaked explosives into your luggage without your knowledge.

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Re:Hitchens: The truth about airplane security measures by kelnos on Thursday December 31, 2009 @06:09AM (#1024128)

Yes, my understanding is that it makes the person stop and think for a moment, "oh, hmm, wait a sec... I did leave my bag alone when I went to the bathroom." Of course, my assumption is that most people would still answer "yes" to the question anyway, to avoid being inconvenienced by a search.

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