Why scope and grope pilots?

Leonard K. writes:

Has it ever occurred to anyone how stupid it is to “scope and grope” pilots? If a pilot is determined to crash his own plane, he doesn’t have to sneak aboard a bomb, a knife, or anything at all.

LA replies:

It’s beyond conception. It’s jumping the shark squared.

- end of initial entry -

November 18

Laurence B. writes:

It’s even loonier than that! Many pilots, after completing a two-week intensive training course, are actually licensed to carry a firearm on the plane! They can legally bring guns into the cockpit, but have to be searched anyway. What are the TSA people looking for?

N. writes:

This is why pilots go through scope and grope:

Because of the crash of PSA flight 1771 in the 1980s. Note that the murderer deliberately misused airline credentials to get on the aircraft with his gun. Prior to this, I am reliably informed that more than one airline pilot carried a revolver on board as an anti-hijack weapon. After this event, pilots and crew were no longer allowed to bypass the security checkpoints.

Thus we now have the spectacle of pilots enduring the scope/grope/ fondle regime, because of a freak murder from 23 years ago.

Alexis Zarkov writes:

Leonard K. asks why the TSA requires airline pilots to go through security screening. Here is the thinking behind such a requirement. If a pilot can pass through security without being checked, he could, in theory bring, explosives and devices into a terminal and pass them on to other people. We know from the Bojinka Plot that the terrorists Ramzi Yousf and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed hatched a scheme to bring down 12 airliners at once using five operatives. I don’t know how carefully pilots are investigated, but it seems reasonable to check them along with everyone else. Of course TSA exempts its own personnel from checks, and that’s a major shortcoming of their system.

I would scale up the Israeli security system and junk the “scope and grope” approach which is ridiculous. But as pointed out by Mr. Auster, such a system requires intelligent airport security agents, and that would lead to a dearth of blacks and Hispanics among their ranks. Currently this is politically unacceptable. Our leaders would rather inconvenience and endanger everyone in the interests of non-discrimination. The only solution is regime change.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 17, 2010 07:52 PM | Send