Some airlines were telling passengers on Saturday that new government security regulations prohibit them from leaving their seats beginning an hour before landing.
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Air Canada said in a statement that new rules imposed by the Transportation Security Administration limit on-board activities by passengers and crew in U.S. airspace. The airline said that during the final hour of flight passengers must remain seated. They won't be allowed access to carryon baggage or to have any items on their laps.
Airlines: New Rules Keep Passengers In Seats
Because, apparently, terrorists will only try to blow up the plane in the last hour of flight. Let's hope there's not another attempt in the next few months, or passengers won't be able to go to the john for the entire trip.
They're also, according to the article, going to restrict even further how much carry-on luggage you can bring with you. This won't prevent them from losing your checked luggage, of course, and I'm pretty sure they won't stop charging passengers for that second piece of checked luggage.
You really have to wonder how many screws are lose inside the heads of the people who come up with this stuff. For my part, I'm going to look into alternative means of travel before I go anywhere in an airliner.
(h/t Earth Bound Misfit)
8 comments:
one more reason why i haven't flown since 9/11. i refuse to give up my civil liberties just because i want to get somewhere faster.
*shaking head in disgust*
I've flown for business, and very occasionally for pleasure. It's getting harder to do, though. This is new idea is just unbelievable. It's like this is an experiment to see just how much we'll go through before we simply won't get on a plane.
There are going to be a lot of transportation corporations going out of business if they think they will get any business from me over this rank insanity. A recent trip to Madrid by train, 200 kph, hardly a ripple in the coffee, only for an information panel would you know your speed, seats roomy, stretch the legs easily, on-board movie, free earphones. Time for trip about 4 hours, time flying - an estimated 5 hours after travel to airport, checkin, waiting for plane, flying, arriving and retrieving luggage and transportation to city, cost - comparable and dignity intact.
Expat
Alas, trains don't work like that in this country. There seems to be mounting concern, in fact, that we're allowing people to get on trains and go anywhere without going through a similarly degrading search. Our trains are also slower, and have greater distances to travel.
Still, I'd prefer taking one to going anywhere by air.
Its getting harder and harder to remember now, but once there was a time when you just walked into the terminal and directly to your boarding gate. No security checks, no huge lines, no anxious customers eyeballing everyone with dark hair and a beard. Nothing brings home how much the world has changed as the experience of traveling by air.
I remember as a young man being able to wander pretty much anywhere at the SeaTac Airport, as long as I didn't go out onto the tarmac or some other potentially hazardous area. Now, you can't go hardly anywhere without a boarding pass, and you can't get out of the areas you need a boarding pass to get to without having to go through the whole TSA maze again.
Cujo359 Did you see Nate Silver's breakdown of the odds of dieing on an airplane from a terrorist attack? You have a much better chance of dieing from a lightning strike.
Yes, I did see that article. He's right. Blue Texan has a good chart to illustrate what you're to die of prematurely in this country. Terrorism's bar is barely visible on it.
Of course, anyone with any sense is aware of this stuff. The problem, of course, is that people with any sense are in the minority in this country.
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