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Old November 1st 07, 11:17 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting,rec.travel.air,aus.aviation
Sylvia Else
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Default Ten Plane Crashes That Changed Aviation

wrote:
On Oct 31, 11:31 pm, Sylvia Else wrote:
Kwyjibo wrote:
"Ned" wrote in ...
Ten Plane Crashes That Changed Aviation
Popular Mechanics | By David Noland | October 13, 2007
snip
Hmmm. No mention of September 11, 2001.
I would have thought those plane crashes would have made the list, given the
drastic changes that resulted.

No, because the changes haven't resulted in any increase in safety.


I'd argue that there have been significant increases in safety
since those attacks. I'll go so far as to predict that there will
be no more succesful airliner hijackings in the rest of my lifetime.

But the reason has absolutely nothing to do with the government's
many actions. They could stop screening passengers entirely,
and hijackings still wouldn't be feasible.

The reason has everything to do with the change in public
consciousness. If you did a survey on Sept 10, 2001, asking
people what is the safest course of action if they're a passenger
on an airliner when someone stands up and announces that
the plane is being hijacked, most people would've said to
stay quiet, lay low, cooperate, and don't attract attention.
Up until then, hijacked passengers and flight crew members
could expect to survive the ordeal if they followed those rules.

Since that time, the correct course of action has
changed to, "If you want to live, do whatever it takes
to disable or kill the hijackers, at all costs. Do not
cooperate at all under any circumstances."

THAT is what has put an end to airliner hijacking.


Well, yes, that's what I had in mind. The September 11th style
hijackings were already impossible on the 12th. The crashes that changed
aviation article was about changes to practice and construction that
resulted from the investigation, not about changes to passenger behaviour.

It's a shame the Ethopian Airlines hijacking didn't occur after 9/11.
The majority of the passengers died in the ensuing ditching, but the
hijackers didn't really have a bomb.

Sylvia.