The temporary changes to in-flight procedures for US passengers

bamboozle

i'm not sure if these apply only to travel within the states...seems pretty draconian not being allowed stand up during the last hour even to use the facilities...

Transportation authorities began imposing tighter security measures at airports on Saturday and ordered new restrictions governing the activities of passengers during flights as investigators conducted searches to learn more about the Nigerian engineering student accused of igniting an incendiary device aboard a Northwest Airlines jet as it landed in Detroit on Friday.
The White House declared the incident “an attempted act of terrorism.” The plane, an Airbus A330 wide-body jet with 278 passengers coming from Amsterdam, landed safely around noon on Christmas Day after passengers helped subdue the suspect.
Less than 24 hours after the terrorist attempt, travelers at airports around the world, from Frankfurt to Rochester, N.Y., began experiencing heightened screening in security lines. Even as airlines began limiting United States-bound passengers to just one carry-on bag, travelers will feel the most significant changes during the actual flights.
According to a statement posted Saturday morning on Air Canada’s Web site, the Transportation Security Administration will severely limit the behavior of both passengers and crew during flights in United States airspace - restricting movement in the final hour of flight. Late Saturday morning, the T.S.A. had not yet included this new information on its own Web site.
“Among other things,” the statement in Air Canada’s Web site read, “during the final hour of flight customers must remain seated, will not be allowed to access carry-on baggage, or have personal belongings or other items on their laps.”

zagmund

This is going to be fun. Imagine people with stomach problems, kids who didn't listen when their parents told them to 'go' before the time ran out, and other people who feel they must get up and walk about. Airlines are going to have to start charging a soiling fee like taxis do.

Then there's the people who are afraid of deep vein thrombosis - keeping them immobile isn't going to help them.

And do you know what . . . given time, those cunning terrorists will work out that they can blow up the plane before the 60 minute timer starts. You know, maybe aim for 65 minutes out, or even 70.

Next thing you know they will work out how to detonate their fiendish explosives without standing up. Then we're all in trouble. The next security measure will be complete and utter immobilisation by injection as you board the plane. No, wait, you'll get the injection as you approach the airport before you get near a plane.

I still think that if I was a terrorist I would avoid all the hassle and just sit on the approach to some big airport with a BFG (or even a small FG) and blow up the plane after it has passed overhead. If I was a not clever terrorist I would blow it up as it was directly overhead.

z

zagmund

Sorry, to address your question, the regulations seem to be US-based so hopefully the mandarins will fight a bit and keep these regulations out of Europe for a while at least.

z

bamboozle

just cant see these laws coming into Europe, i can see them being a reason for lots of people not to travel into the states if the flights are going to be that uncomfortable.

BuffyBot

These have pretty much already been scrapped. Apart from all passengers being searched/patted down before boarding the rest of it (turning entertainment off, no moving for last hour etc) is now at crew discretion. So 99% of the time, it's all back to normal as I can't imagine any crew implementing that stuff voluntarily.

They only applied/apply for flights IN to the USA, not flights out or for domestic US flights.

I'd editing the thread title so as people don't panic