It certainly is a catch 22, one that in the United States the FAA has doubled down with the mandatory installation of an additional cockpit barrier (Though I did not see them installed on my last series of flights to and from San Diego. So this must only be on newly manufactured
aircraft or the ones I was on had not been retrofitted yet.
An individual bent on destroying an airliner and killing him-/herself in the process is difficult to stop because there are that many opportunities other than trying to crash into the cockpit.
The good thing is that a lot of wannabee-terrorists are plain stupid:
* The shoebomber Richard Reid (2001) who tried to lit a fuse of a bomb hidden in his shoes, but the fuse was wet because he had sweaty feet and didn't light. 3 consecutive life-sentences plus 110 year and no parole.
* The underwear bomber Farouk Abdulmutallab (2009) tried to detonate a PETN/TATP mixture in his underwear but he just caused fire. As a result his penis and testicles had to be surgically removed. Life without parole.
* The Times Square bomber (2010) who filled a car with full propane cannisters and threw in a packet of lit firecrackers on a lengthy fuse expecting this would set-off the cannisters to explode. Nothing happened. He also left receipts in the car that made him the obvious suspect. Life without parole.
Years ago I wrote an article about stupid terrorists ...
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--- DB4 - 20261021
* Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)