Air Osama

[Theophylact]

Is Microsoft Flight Simulator too realistic?

(I think you should be able to view this Salon article free of charge; if not, let me know and I'll post the whole thing as text.)

[muno]

No, no and no.

These kinds of articles just add fuel to fire which is stupid to begin with.
Ban this, ban that, actually ban everything!
Terrorists everywhere! Terrorists everyone!

Oh crap.
-M

[ClubMed]

If this article was posted on a website other than an American one then I would be surprised at the topic. But seeing where it's coming from it seems to be part of the trend at the moment to keep everyone scared, and to look under every rock to find something that "could be used by terrorists".

[Theophylact]

Basically, it seems a red herring to me. There's no danger in anybody knowing how to fly a plane. Just keep them out of the cockpit, and the problem never materializes... but it is a sample of the kind of paranoia prevalent here.

Can't view the whole article for free, Theo, but what is there gives the gist of where it's headed.

So, we should ban games that teach good hand/eye co-ordination lest terrorists use them to teach how to shoot straight?

I agree: it's the not the knowing how to fly (there are other ways to train pilots, inlcuding flight schools - should we close all flight schools to Arabs, for instance, just in case one might be Osama? ), it's the preventing someone with the knowledge the opportunity for using it inappropriately. Lock the cockpit door, and secure the area.

Cheers
Mick

[Harold7]

Theophylact

Great point... there will probably never be another successful hijack of a civilian airliner... the passengers (or the USAF) would almost certainly stop it cold.

Other modes of attack against high value,, hard to protect targets are much more likely... subways, tunnels, etc., all we can really do is be vigilant and use a little intelligence about how we approach real threats and not let phantasms created from paranoia scare us to death.

[MTAtech]

Terrorists will learn to fly if they want to. We were caught with our pants down 2 yrs ago because although it was a known threat (e.g. the terrorists who wanted to ram the Eiffel Tower the year before) there wasn't anybody preparing. So, the terrorists enrolled in US flight schools.

Our job is keeping them out of the country and out of the cockpit.
In addition, it's like the generals fighting the last war - focus on how they did it the last time instead of thinking about how they'll do it the next time. We need to evaluate other threats - like the ports, non-commerical airplanes (private, freight, etc.), and cyber -terrorism.

This seems to be an interesting CD-ROM, called 'Digital Terrorism and Hate 2003' compiled by the research division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Snider Social Action Institute.

http://www.wiesenthal.com/store/stor...5878s&src=xxxx

[CERuppel]

"Keep them out of the cockpit"

One (or more) countries already have this one solved. There is no door from the passenger area to the flight deck. None.

Makes the hijack kinda hard. Makes the terrorist suicide attack near impossible.

And all this has been in use for over twenty years. Someone had a serious brainstorm way back when.