They do have security in Canadian bus terminals who search you. And also in UK ferry terminals when going to Ireland.

I've travelled by ferry to both Northern and Southern Ireland several times and have only been searched once. This was on a work journey where it turned out my colleague had a criminal record. This was 10 - 12 years ago so perhaps things have changed since?

I have been routinely searched before boarding a ferry to Spain as a foot passenger. AFAIAA, car passengers are not routinely searched, so I don't know what the logic is there?

In terms of attacking the passengers of the craft, you can equate the two. In terms of attacking a building with the craft, there are significant differences. A plane can take down a huge building. A bus usually can't. A train definitely can't.

Although I do agree with your point that the risk there is different; a much easier control would be to have an emergency autopilot mode in the plane that the pilot can't disable. So if the plane gets hijacked ... it just flys its normal route. The hijacker's only options are to either kill everyone on board (same risk profile as a bus trip) or not (at which point they aren't effective hijackers).

Even if the plane just downed itself in an ocean in an emergency; that'd be technically not so hard to pull off. Enough to deter hijackers so the mechanism wouldn't need to be used.

In case of an attack, the bus driver can just stop the bus on the road, open the doors and let everyone run off the bus. Hard to do on a plane

> An airplane flight is practically a high-tech bus trip.

I think that mindset is mistaken, and explains many of the misconceptions around the dentist that was dragged of a United plane a while ago. However, that this mindset can persist shows just how amazingly successful aviation safety and security efforts have been over the past decades.

> Airport security probably is useless, otherwise there'd be an analogue for public transport.

It is much easier to kill everyone on a plane (and then some) than everyone on a bus or train, it seems to me.

Realistically the days of planes being hijacked are over, barring severe incompetence or malice by the pilots. I think it’s easiest to kill everyone on a bus because the driver is accessible and unprotected. I agree with the “air bus” analogy. Heh. That’s a good name for a company.