Fear of flying

About a month ago, my astrologer friend and I had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in Mega Mall. She told me a lot of things, as usual, but the one thing that stuck in my mind was her warning to avoid riding in airplanes for the meantime. I had no forthcoming plane rides in my schedule but my wife was flying to Los Angeles. I told her about it but then again, she had to go so she had to fly. When she got to Los Angeles safely, the warning about plane rides slipped my mind too.

Then last week's tragic events happened. I thought that this must be it or part of it. The only other plane crash to hit media in the last few weeks was that of a small private aircraft where a rock star died. Last week however, makes the word catastrophe seem tame. I don't know about you folks, but I think I am developing a phobia for flying.

The thing about last week's tragedy is that those hijackings could have been prevented by better security. I have been reading the various web sites of American news organizations and they are all saying that US airport security is lax. I didn't get that impression probably because they always make me turn on my laptop every time my carry-on bags pass through the X-rays. A laptop is obvious but they miss on the small things like cardboard cutters.

Apparently we are stricter in this part of the world. Some years ago, I remember Tribune publisher Niñez Cacho Olivares was stopped by security at Kota Kinabalu airport because she left a small souvenir letter opener in the shape of a kris made of Malaysian tin in her overnight bag. Of course she told the security officer he could have it, adding that it was a gift of the Malaysian government. And that was many years ago in the island of Borneo, far far away from Boston's Logan International. And Niñez does not even fit the so-called "profile".

What makes America's tragedy harder to take is that not too long ago, former Vice President Al Gore headed a commission on air travel safety. The Gore commission condemned the American airport security procedures and policies as unsafe. But officials and the airline industry debated the remedial measures literally to death, which happened last week in the thousands.

For starters, the Gore commission didn't like the idea of having inadequately trained, poorly paid minimum wage workers, entrusted with the awesome responsibility of assuring American air travel safety. The airlines hire private security agencies to man those X-ray machines, making it primarily a business cost issue rather than a national safety issue which would make it a government responsibility.

Then there is the matter of the door to the cockpit. There is a rule to keep it locked during flight but it is so flimsy it can be knocked down easily by determined hijackers. Proposals to make it stronger, as in the Israeli El Al jets, have been thumbed down by the pilots themselves. A spokesman of the pilots association however clarified that they are now in favor of having stronger doors, after last week.

One imagines that the pilots of the hijacked flights could have landed their jets at the nearest airport if the hijackers were unable to get into the cockpit. Passengers may still be in danger but the pilots will not lose control of the aircraft and plunge into a building. Maybe, the configuration of an aircraft should be such that the flight deck crew can eat, sleep and do everything they need to do within an enlarged cockpit area that is locked like a vault during flight.

The time may come when passengers will be required to submit a police clearance before being allowed flights. Tougher screening of everyone who boards a commercial aircraft is as important as aircraft engine maintenance in assuring passenger safety. Pilots should also be required to undergo regular psychiatric tests so as to prevent suicidal pilots as the one in an Egyptian Airlines flight from New York from sacrificing his passengers as well.

Governments must invest in modern security machines at airport departure areas and they must keep them in tiptop shape. That's why we pay those atrocious airport and travel taxes. I often notice our X-ray machines not working properly, which explains the long lines in the one functioning machine. That puts pressure on the people manning the machines, making them more easily liable to miss deadly objects being taken on board.

The most important change in perspective is the need to view airport security as primarily a government, not an airline responsibility. We must train those equipment operators better and pay them a lot more than minimum wage. The lives they are protecting are priceless… ours.

Horsie horsie

This one's from reader Fe dela Cruz.

While acquainting himself with a new elderly patient, a doctor asked, "How long have you been bedridden?"

After a look of complete confusion she answered, "Why, not for about twenty years, when my husband was alive."

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])