Scare on Flight Sure to Cause Future Delays

An American Airlines flight set to travel from Los Angeles to London had to make an emergency stop in New York this morning because of concerns about one of the passengers. Though details are few and far between, it appears as though the passenger somehow reached his flight via a bus meant for airline employees. As a result, airline security never had the chance to molest and or harass him. The only rational and reasonable response was then of course to disturb the travel plans of hundreds and put the plane down as soon as possible.

Where the true inconvenience of this whole ordeal will develop, however, goes well beyond the passengers on the affected Boeing 777. Undoubtedly airline employees will now be subjected to tighter monitoring and screening processes. The result will be more crackling terminal announcements of, "We are sorry for the delay, but we are waiting on our flight crew. There is a bit of a backup at their security screening." Sadly, the passengers hearing those messages will be the lucky ones. Others will simply be stuck on their planes without water, leg room, or clean lavatories as they wait for baggage handlers who are held up having their baggage handled.

Such a change in policy will fit right in line with the TSA's pattern of painting isolated incidents as systematic nationwide threats. A single idiot attempts to blow up a flight with a shoe-bomb and millions of Americans must dirty their socks on filthy airport floors. Some halfwit attempts to sneak liquid explosives on a plane and now we all need to keep our sunscreen in three ounce clear containers in a one quart clear plastic bag.

While safer flights are important and it is good to have a system in place to keep dangerous people and items off of planes, at least a small portion of common sense in airline safety regulations would be a refreshing change of pace.