Pilot furious at U.S. for silence on bomb

[701EV]

Maybe the country needs to grow some balls instead.

When POTUS has no balls!

The United States has no balls!

 

[rumrnr78]

When POTUS has no balls!

The United States has no balls!

I am on a 6 night trip to Osaka so I flew my Wife up from Hong Kong. We are taking the train tomorrow to Hiroshima for the day. Just to see where "Little Boy" landed. I will be repectful at the museum but make no mistake I support the dropping of both the bombs! Because it saved American lives that didn't have to invade Japan. And, to remember when our "Lady Liberty" had a nice hairy pair!

Cheers-

P.S. How does Obama, who started his political career in the living room of an unrepentant terrorist, protect the country?

 

[waveflyer]

Good lord- conservatives are such blow hards. We are no less safe than a year ago.
The biggest security breakthrough we've had is to change our policy on whether or not to cooperate with the buggers. They'll need to book half the flight in order to get past the passengers- which is how this one got handled. If I'm in the back when something like this goes down- I'll lead the charge- bit the poster above is correct- terrorism should be handled- not dramatized- it's shark attack news- scary and dramatic- but the reality is we have much more to be concerned about on the freeway or when little johnny finds the key to the gun locker.

 

[AA717driver]

From what I heard, international flights at my airline that didn't have SATCOM did not get notified.

Any putz flying domestically can get an ACARS message. Int'l. is a different animal.

Regardless of your politics, we are woefully inadequate when it comes to intel and security and the blame rests squarely on politics. EVERYONE in the establishment plays politics with everything. No decision is made for the good of the country but who can get the most out of an issue by either supporting it or obstructing it.

The next successful attack? It's not "if" but "when".

TC

 

[ASADFW7]

I am amazed that people defend passivity. There are times to take action and be prepared Risk management predicts that when the lid is off the box that the percentages of another incident occurring is much higher. The writer of the letter has a point, there needs to be better communication and coordination when security risks are raised. During an incident is now regarded as a much higher risk period as predicated on actual events that have have been planned and carried out against the United States. These are now coordinated times, and coordinated measures are now needed to protect ourselves.

Reject Passivity people, it will save lives. Throwing this guy under the bus for drawing attention to the constant intelligence and communication failure of our governmental agencies is not just dangerous it is short sighted and irresponsible. If you think for a minute that national security is a joke there are plenty of places were we have failed and plenty of monuments to pay a visit to remind yourself people are out to kill Americans.

Now I am not a trigger happy right wing conservative, I am simply stating my opinion regarding how important it is to stop sympathizing with incompetence and ineptitude.

 

[densoo]

I only learned about the incident after landing when I looked at the CNN Web site on my iPhone.

Isn't there an iPhone app that allows reception via satellite for checking "weather" over the Atlantic, Pacific, or poles.

 

[Whine Lover]

I make statements to the media all the time but my press conferences are not well attended. ( I suspect a vast left wing conspiracy ) - I have the same problem.(!)

Seriously though I do write the occasional letter to Aviation Week under my own name. (So far they have published all of them) - Me too. Only one letter though.



My crew meal was excellent today, thank you very much. - So, you have that going for you, and that's not too shabby.




Good luck with that one. I am not excited to be in close proximity to your Barney Battalion but maybe it's just me.

- You are correct Sir. I must reconsider this one. We can't have a pile of fools running around with one bullet each. We need trained Israeli Commandos with automatic weapons and at least a thousand rounds each.

 

[igneousy2]

Let me guess steve is one of those FFDO guys that accomplished FFDO school because of a certain small appendage he has.

The morale to this story: we are and always will be vulnerable. From the date of your birth until your 80 birthday, you have a 1 in 800,000 chance of dying in a terrorist attack....a 1 in 80 chance of dying in a car accident.....a 1 in 100 chance of dying from the discharge of a hand gun. It always numbs my brain to watch the like of Fox news and your typical red neck uneducated pilot constantly obsess about issues that in the whole scheme of things, matters little compared to other issues.

and the morale of THIS story is that there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.

first...I would say that if it is true that the average person has a 1 in 800,000 chance of dying in a terrorist attack, the people reading this form are in all likelihood substantially above average in this regard just because our exposure is substantially higher than the average person. Who else is included in this "average"...I would bet that a Montana farmer that never gets on an airplane in his life and the only "big city" he ever goes to is Cut Bank is greatly skewing the risk from those of us on airplanes and in major city centers everyday. Statistics also look backwards. If there was a rash of terrorist attacks next week, I would bet the odds would change. Besides haven't you ever read about Black Swans.

second...I'm surprised at the reaction on this board. It is clear that the ball was dropped as many airplanes were not notified properly. I'm not a gun nut FFDO type but I must say that everything I have read about the TSA response (or lack of one) angers me.

Keeping our head down and going through our union has gotten us here...and I don't like where we are. The APA has come out guns blazing against the TSA, where is ALPA? They are keeping their mouth shut because they are affraid they won't be able to get the age 65 rule changed to an age 70 rule if they anger too many people in Washington.

Steve - Bravo for having the balls for saying what you feel and for actually having the ability to get yourself heard.