Security: Airport: April 2009 Archives

Bruce Schneier links to this article about a plane between France and Mexico being diverted because a passenger on board was on the US no-fly list and the plane would have gone over the US. I agree with Bruce that the no-fly list is basically stupid, but once you accept its premises this strikes me as not entirely crazy. If your concern is that someone is going to hijack the plane and crash it into a building, then he doesn't even have to land to do that, just get close enough to the target that it's hard to know what's up and divert him. So, with that reasoning I can see why you would think that it was undesirable to even let him into US airspace. Moreover, it has the side benefit of letting TSA look like they're really trying hard to keep you safe, while (mostly) only inconveniencing foreigners. What's the downside from their perspective?