Good security takes a systems-based approach. A system as large and complex as air transport requires strategic calculus that evaluates the impact of a countermeasure across the entire system.

The decision (countermeasure) to ban several kinds of liquids has forced many passengers to check these items. This has lead to a dramatic increase in the amount of checked baggage that needs to be screened. If TSA does not have the capacity to adequately screen these greater numbers of bags, it could very well increase the INsecurity of the overall system and negate the benefits created by original countermeasure.

Click here to read an example.

Another incident on-board a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Mumbai details the reality and risk of passenger profiling. Click to read more.

New reports continue to profile the supposedly covert Federal Air Marshal Program. Allegations by FAMs concerning management incompetence and silly policies that "blow their cover" continue to be featured by media outlets around the country. A most recent broadcast deals with the dress code that FAMs have been battling for many years.Click here to read more.

This incident on a British charter flight is similar to many which happened after 9-11. Passengers, encouraged by security officials to involve themselves in defense, seem to go a little too far.

Click here to read more.

Like the increase in air rage incidents, we can expect to see more incidents like this one that occurred today, as the in-cabin environment becomes even more stressful.

Click here to read more.

Seemingly unbiquitous incidents at airports here and the around the world are treated by most people as single, isolated events. However, the presence of global criminal and terrorist networks should compel us to see if there are any inter-related factors.

An example: The evacuation of Huntington (West Virgina) Airport on August 17 was ordered after the explosive detection the contents of a Pakistani woman's bottles( prohibited items) that she had in her carry-on bag. Might this event be related to the arrest in nearby Marrieta, Ohio, a week earlier, of young two Arab-Americans who had in their possession airport documents and passenger lists? Each of the individuals had strong ties to Dearborn, Michigan.

This all may be a mere coincidence. But then again...

As the stress of air travel once again gets cranked-up, expect to see more cases of air rage, as was the case on two flights today. Greater pressure at the checkpoints, alcohol, drug abuse, mental illness, arrogance, passenger fear, and passenger profiling will all contribute to more cases of unruly and disruptive passengers in the coming weeks and months. This will be very similar to what happened in the aftermath of 9-11.

Read about one of the cases here.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, you can read more in my bestselling book AIR RAGE: CRISIS IN THE SKIES.

The more things change... Nineteenth century technology - X-rays- was never the right tool to detect explosives. As I detailed in AVIATION INSECURITY, pages 189 - 190, X-rays are intrinsically uncapable of detecting explosives. It is a density sensitive but a chemically blind technolgy.

Click here to read more about the latest Homeland Security report that states the obvious.

1. Airport access remains one of aviation's most glaring vulnerabilities.

Reports will begin to trickle out that one of the plotters worked at Heathrow and had a security clearance. This highlights how at airports around the world, more and more emphasis is being placed on the "front door", i.e. passengers and crew, while still far too little attention is paid to the "back door" like airport employees, contractors, et. al.

2.This is serious stuff.

The plotters included a husband, wife, and their six-month old baby who planned to execute their part of the mission by detonating an explosion on-board one of the aircraft.

3. Al-qaeda still reveres attacks on commercial aviation. Here is a incomplete list of major attacks- successful and thwarted- since 9-11:

Richard Reid the shoe-bomber, December 2001; SAM attack against Isreali airliner over Nairobi, November 2002; attempted suicide hijacker takeover over Mexicana Airliner with goal of hitting Las Vegas Strip, winter 2003; foiled attack of BA 747 at Riyadh International by a general aviation aircraft laden with explosives, February 2004; female suicide bombers detonate themselves on two separate domestic flights in Russia killing more than 200 people, July 2004.

I've included some of the recent media statements which I made on August 10 and 11 to provide better context of the situation:

WKYC TV - Channel 3, Cleveland. Ohio

The Globe & Mail - Toronto, Canada

WCPN 90.3 FM - NPR Affiliate, Cleveland, Ohio

Akron Beacon Journal - Akron, Ohio

The U.S. has raised the threat level for air transport to 'red': the highest ever. The events of the past day should compel all of us to hold our leaders accountable when it comes to insuring the most effective aviation security system our tax-dollars can buy.

We need to remember that terorrists are constantly gaming the global air transport system. Read a story here about a wallet bomb that was placed on a Turkish airliner two years ago.

More recently, the arrest of two men in Ohio with flight plans and other airport information along with cash lends us to further conclude aviation remains THE highest target.

The arrest of over 20 in the U.K., whom Scotland Yard claims were seeking to destroy multiple airliners over the Atlantic with IED's smuggled on via hand luggage, is no surprise. Click to read more

Eleven years ago, Operation Bojinka was foiled by Philippine authorities. That plan, developed by Ramzi Yousef, the first World Trade Center bomber, was the same in nature: assemble IED's during flight and detonate them on 11 U.S. airliners over the Pacific.

Al-Qaeda still wants to blow up planes and sees such attacks as the best global statement it can make.

I am really tired of the celebrity-dominated culture. It seems many of them possess a sense of entitlement, especially when it comes to air travel.

Take the recent case of David Hassellhoff

or

Let's look at the behavior of Katie Couric

or

Scottish football star Fernando Ricksen

Enough already...

The topics of aviation security and air rage are not very uplifting. Many of the stories and decisions that are analyzed are often depressing and downright sad.

Rather than exploring the actions of the usual subjects, I would like to use today's post to describe a heroic action that saved someone's life last Thursday on Continental Flight 380 from Las Vegas to Cleveland.

Not long after take-off, a passenger who had recently undergone heart surgery began to experience serious pain. A fellow passenger immediately responded, assessed the situation, and began to administer an IV to stablize her low pressure.

Using a seat-back phone, he communicated with a physician giving regular updates and describing the woman's improvement as a result of the IV. It was quickly decided by the Captain that the plane should make an emergency landing in Denver, where the ill, but improving passenger, was taken to a local hospital.

Here's to you Dad- Robert D. Thomas, CRNA- for your heroic actions. Job well done!!!