Let’s Get A Few Things Straight

I’ve written previously about how difficult I believe it would be today for terrorists to pull off another attack like that of 9/11 because of a change in mentality in passengers and flight crews.

In the old “take me to Cuba” hijacking days before 9/11, we were told to comply with hijackers’ demands, let them make their political statement, and 99 times out of 100 the worst that could happen was a delay in arriving at your destination due to an unplanned detour to Havana or Panama or where ever.

No one ever dreamed of hijacking a plane and deliberately crashing it as a political statement.

Today, if someone jumps up on a flight I’m on and starts acting weird, yelling about Allah or “the voices in their head” or whatever, I am going to unbuckle my seatbelt, excuse my self past the other passengers in my seating row, walk calmly over and…

PROCEED TO KICK THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF THEIR STUPID ASS.

What is left of them will be calmly duct taped or wire tied into a tight little bloody bundle and placed in a convenient restroom or trash storage hamper until the airplane lands.

SUE ME IF YOU WILL, I DON’T CARE, the safety of my fellow passengers and myself is WAY more important than your right to freak out in public at any altitude above 2 feet above the ground.

I thought that most other people agreed with my position, but apparently not, as indicated in this story about passengers sitting in their seats watching a woman attempt to open a airliner door while the plane was still in flight.

“Flight 1195, en route from Denver, was reportedly at an altitude of about 4,000 feet Wednesday when Jeanne Dempsey, 52, sitting at the rear of the Boeing 737, left her seat and tried to open an exit door.

Dempsey, who is from Dania Beach, failed but "she did manage to turn the handle far enough that a warning light went on in the cockpit," Seattle-Tacoma International Airport spokesman Bob Parker told KING-TV.

"Ultimately, at the urging of the flight attendant, she went and sat back down," he said.

Those on board said no one tried to physically restrain the woman. Parker said those who saw her at the door made a "conscious choice" to stay securely belted in their seats just in case she did manage to open the door.

The woman was arrested for investigation of malicious mischief when the plane landed at 1:30.”

OK, in this case, since the culprit was a woman, I would have gotten out of my seat and started out by asking her if I could help her. If she refused to stop, I would have been forced to put my hands on her in an effort to restrain her, and unless she was some kind of karate expert I’m afraid that my massive tonnage would have won the confrontation due to the advantage afforded me by the basic laws of physics. I have never struck a woman, but in this case I believe that I could make an exception.

I still can’t believe that the passengers just sat there and watched…

Is that what you would have done?