AA Plane Flies with Missile Defense System.

[eolesen]

Forget AA for a moment.... How many other airlines have or are in the process of installing SAM countermeasures?

I can almost guarantee it a list starting and ending with LY.

The most effective way of avoiding missles is to stop flying airplanes into the places filled with malcontents.... that, plus continuing to kill terrorists abroad before they get to places which are filled with wannabe malcontents.

 

[MCI transplant]

<_< ----- eolsen, You make some good points!------ But, in todays "reality", both politically, and economically, can we afford to take that chance? And may I say, if mandated by, lets say, FAA, do you feel the government should pay for, at least, some of the cost of initial installation?------"Fly airplanes in places filled with malcontents", Do you feel N.Y. is one of those places? If flt.800 proved anything, it was that it could be done from places like that, easily!

 

[KCKKen]

Here's my take on all this:

1) Just how much emphasis was made on strengthening cockpit doors before 9/11? And how much after 9/11?

2) How many people thought 757's and 767's would be capable of producing so much damage that 767's would be responsible for bringing down the World Trade Center towers before 9/11?

3) How many people thought about the potential for land-based (shoulder-fired or otherwise) missiles bringing down commercial aircraft prior to Flight 800, or the near-hit incident with the Israeli plane in Africa? How many do now?

4) Who's ready to accept responsibility for not installing systems such as these and having another incident occur, this time with total certainty that it was a missile?

Safety in this business usually comes with a lot of loss of life BEFORE something is done. Take the examples of anti-icing equipment, advanced ATC (mid-air Grand Canyon incident in the 50's) and windshear. Wouldn't it be nice to have something done JUST ONCE without that loss of life?

I guess it's just how much value we place on fellow humans. It's easy to say "it's not worth it" until you're the one 1) on that airplane, or 2) getting the call that your relative is/was on that airplane.