Wealthy travelers routinely bypass the TSA by flying on private jets. How long until al-Qaeda does the same?

[^_^ 5,021]

Teterboro Airport, situated in the New Jersey Meadowlands, a short distance from the Lincoln Tunnel, is the LAX of the American plutocracy. It is an airport given over entirely to “general” aviation—general being a euphemism for “private.” There are many different types of “general aviation” aircraft. A majority are very small, four- or six-seat propeller planes. A minority are much larger corporate jets of the sort found in great numbers on the Teterboro tarmac.

I do not ordinarily have access to corporate-aviation flights, but a few of my friends do, and I feel very warmly toward these friends when they ask me to join them aboard their planes, which is not often enough. Such an invitation came recently while I was in New York City for an appearance on The Colbert Report, during which I discussed our country’s ludicrous aviation-security system. A friend let me know he was flying back to Washington that night on a private plane. Count me in, I said.

...

Fifteen minutes after leaving Manhattan, we arrived at the airport gate. A private security guard asked my friend for the tail number of our plane. He provided the number—or he provided a few digits of the number—and we were waved through, without an identification check. The plane, I should point out, didn’t belong to my friend; it belonged to a company with which my friend’s business does business. We drove to the terminal—operated by Signature Flight Support, a leading provider of general-aviation services—where we met our co-pilot, who escorted us to the plane.

“You’re Mr. Goldba?” the co-pilot said to me.

“It’s Goldberg,” I said.

“Okay, the e-mail must have gotten cut off or something.”

We continued to the plane. I asked my friend—let’s refer to him as “Osama bin La”—if there would be any security check whatsoever before we went wheels-up. He laughed. “I think the law says we have to pat each other down.”

“Do these pilots know you well?” I asked. “Is that why they trust you to bring me along?”

He first met them that morning, he said, when they flew him to Teterboro.

We climbed aboard the eight-seat twin-engine plane. The pilot greeted us, took my bag from me, and placed it on a seat. I noticed that no door separated the cabin from the cockpit.

We took off a few minutes later and headed south, in the direction of the Pentagon, the White House, and the United States Capitol complex.

“So let’s just say that I’m a terrorist pilot,” I said, “and I have a bag filled with handguns and I shoot these two pilots and then I take control of the plane and steer it into the headquarters of the CIA,” near which we would soon be flying. “What’s stopping me?”

“There’s nothing stopping you,” my friend said. “All you need is money to buy a plane, or a charter.”

...

We landed at Dulles International Airport about 40 minutes after we took off. We said good night to the pilots and walked across the tarmac. On the way, we passed far bigger planes than the one on which we had flown: 20- and 30-seat private jets, of obviously significant weight and fuel-storage capacity. Of course, one can charter 757s and 777s for private use as well.

...

I had been under the impression that the TSA stationed personnel at many general-­aviation terminals, but it typically does not. The general-aviation industry is almost entirely “self-regulated.” The TSA ... screens only those Americans who cannot afford to fly on private planes.

...

I am not a terrorist, but I do share one goal with al-Qaeda: I too would like to have a pilot under my control. But, like most Americans, and presumably unlike al-Qaeda, I am not quite rich enough to buy my way out of airport security.

Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for The Atlantic.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/private-plane-public-menace/8335/

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Perhaps the idiot sheep can wake up and understand they are just be herded for the slaughter now.

Doubtful, because the reasoning would be that THEY are being 'protected' and that terrorists wouldn't want their own plane if they couldn't kill a bunch of people on board.

[^_^ 5,021]

Perhaps the idiot sheep can wake up and understand they are just be herded for the slaughter now.

Doubtful, because the reasoning would be that THEY are being 'protected' and that terrorists wouldn't want their own plane if they couldn't kill a bunch of people on board.

I don't know about that. I think most people fully understand that suicide tends to be a central part of contemporary Islamic terrorism.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

I don't know about that. I think most people fully understand that suicide tends to be a central part of contemporary Islamic terrorism.

Right, but that suicide is more like being a 'Kamikaze' than anything. It's completely useless unless you're taking others out with you.

If they just want to commit suicide for Islam, I can arrange for them a revolver and a single bullet.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I routinely fly private planes, often with other Muslims, none of whom scare me. When its your time to go, its your time to go. I'm just glad to have a way around the TSA.

[^_^ 5,021]

When its your time to go, its your time to go.

Well then, we might as well stop fighting terrorism. If they attack us, it just means its our time to go.

[Ban Hammer 12,835]

I routinely fly private planes, often with other Muslims, none of whom scare me. When its your time to go, its your time to go. I'm just glad to have a way around the TSA.

i do too - usually they are made outta paper.

[mawilson 2,133]

I routinely fly private planes, often with other Muslims, none of whom scare me. When its your time to go, its your time to go. I'm just glad to have a way around the TSA.

+1

[mawilson 2,133]

Well then, we might as well stop fighting terrorism. If they attack us, it just means its our time to go.

Who's "we"? TSA? When I (reluctantly) use the services of an airline, I accept a

certain degree of risk. I don't need the government up my аss to make my flight

100 percent safe.

[Amby 490]

the two times I've flown out of Teterboro I was with a friend who is a shared owner of a plane. we sat there for friggin ever both times before it was our turn to take off! might as well have went through security and sat and waited in a terminal.

the no security thing...ugh I completely forgot what I was saying because I just realized my pants are on backwards f it

oh wait...I'm curious how this works when you're coming in on an international flight.

Edited January 7, 2011 by Amby

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

I used to be a private pilot with twin engine and IFR rating. I didn't fly jets but pretty honkin' turboprops at $800 an hour which would leave a big hole in a building and could make Christmas shopping downtown really interesting when going down with full tanks into a shopping mall filled with thousands of people.

When reading the article I can't help but smile.

All of this TSA stuff, or at least most of it, is pure theatre, not only invented to bullsh*t the sheepish Americans in believing that something is being done by their Government to increase flight security, but more so to justify the billions of dollars spent on machines that benefit certain companies that donate richly to politicians' campaigns.

This is not a partisan issue. Lobbying is a cancer that attacks all of the politicians, and only a tiny fraction can escape its fangs.

If a terrorist or a terrorist organization is determined to do harm to the American people, they'll find a way. They won't hide a bomb in the slurpy of a ten year-old kid or in the panties of a 92 year-old grandma with gray hair which are among those people who have to be scanned and patted down like anybody else. There are so many ways to do serious harm, and chartering a corporate jet and shooting it into the middle of a parade or county fair or whatever is just one of many options. If they can't do it the "airplane" way, they poison the drinking water. Does it matter how they hurt the American people? Safety, like anything else, is only as good as the weakest link of the chain. And there are so many fragile links in the US's chain of safety and security that are being untouched, while our Government brags about the expensive computerized lock they bought.

Total B.S.

Edited January 7, 2011 by Just Bob

[james&olya 1,121]

I used to be a private pilot with twin engine and IFR rating. I didn't fly jets but pretty honkin' turboprops at $800 an hour which would leave a big hole in a building and could make Christmas shopping downtown really interesting when going down with full tanks into a shopping mall filled with thousands of people.

When reading the article I can't help but smile.

All of this TSA stuff, or at least most of it, is pure theatre, not only invented to bullsh*t the sheepish Americans in believing that something is being done by their Government to increase flight security, but more so to justify the billions of dollars spent on machines that benefit certain companies that donate richly to politicians' campaigns.

This is not a partisan issue. Lobbying is a cancer that attacks all of the politicians, and only a tiny fraction can escape its fangs.

If a terrorist or a terrorist organization is determined to do harm to the American people, they'll find a way. They won't hide a bomb in the slurpy of a ten year-old kid or in the panties of a 92 year-old grandma with gray hair which are among those people who have to be scanned and patted down like anybody else. There are so many ways to do serious harm, and chartering a corporate jet and shooting it into the middle of a parade or county fair or whatever is just one of many options. If they can't do it the "airplane" way, they poison the drinking water. Does it matter how they hurt the American people? Safety, like anything else, is only as good as the weakest link of the chain. And there are so many fragile links in the US's chain of safety and security that are being untouched, while our Government brags about the expensive computerized lock they bought.

Total B.S.

I agree. The terrorists like commercial airplanes because of how symbolic they are of the west within the cultures these people are from. If they just wanted to kill thousands of people and actually terrorize the shxt out of us they would instead be filling trucks and vans with explosives and be driving them straight into shopping malls, churches, synagogues, theatres, etc, anywhere there were thousands of people congregated together. I agree that a lot of the TSA stuff is for show. It really seems that all they needed to do was install the cockpit doors to prevent the plane itself from being a weapon. But I am glad that it is safer to fly now than before. And look at all the jobs created.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Now that congress will cut off global warming funds, I suspect AlGore will probably be selling them seats so he can buy the fuel to fly to GW conferences in foreign countries. One terrorist helps another.

I agree. The terrorists like commercial airplanes because of how symbolic they are of the west within the cultures these people are from. If they just wanted to kill thousands of people and actually terrorize the shxt out of us they would instead be filling trucks and vans with explosives and be driving them straight into shopping malls, churches, synagogues, theatres, etc, anywhere there were thousands of people congregated together. I agree that a lot of the TSA stuff is for show. It really seems that all they needed to do was install the cockpit doors to prevent the plane itself from being a weapon. But I am glad that it is safer to fly now than before. And look at all the jobs created.

Like they do in Muslim countries.