Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by kube-system 103 days ago
Airlines could have locked cockpit doors and prohibited passengers from bringing box cutters on their airplanes 30 years ago, but they didn't, even though hijackings regularly happened.

When there is no coordination between airlines, none of them wants to be the one who implements tough security and pisses off their customer base.
2 comments
ceejayoz 103 days ago
> Airlines could have locked cockpit doors and prohibited passengers from bringing box cutters on their airplanes 30 years ago, but they didn't, even though hijackings regularly happened.

Yes, because in most cases the hijackers would demand you land, negotiate, and either get some sort of asylum deal or get shot. Big inconvenience, but usually not much bloodshed.

9/11 changed the math for the people on the plane a lot, from "sit down, be quiet, and you'll probably be fine" to "you are about to be flown into a building". Reinforced cockpit doors are one of the little bits of legitimate security improvement made since then.

Look how many on the list at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_hijackings end with "no casualties".

link
kube-system 103 days ago
Yeah, exactly, the security posture was simply to accept the risk because it was presumed to be small. A hijacking is an archetypal security failure, but airlines chose not to add friction to their operations to prevent them.

It's the Ford Pinto cost-benefit analysis scandal of the sky.

link
ceejayoz 103 days ago
The fairly reasonable concern was that it’d turn relatively peaceful events into massacres.

Too much security can be a problem just like too little can.

link
mikestew 103 days ago
…even though hijackings regularly happened

Maybe in the 70s, but that pretty much stopped with advent of metal detectors. And the hijackers had guns, not knives. Before 9/11 I carried a pocket knife on every flight I took.

Regardless, they’re doing it now, so I fail to see your point.

link
QuercusMax 103 days ago
Before 9/11, my dad and I used to carry our fishing tackle boxes onto the plane because we didn't trust them to go through baggage handling. One time my dad brought a 10-inch fish gutting knife on a flight and didn't realize it until we got to our destination. Sailed right through the metal detectors and x-ray machines.
link