Rick Moen via luv-talk wrote:
Quoting russell@coker.com.au (russell@coker.com.au):
I don't think the CIA had the idea of using a heavy passenger jet as a missile.
My father […] kept advising his employer and the FAA in the 1960s that they could put a screeching halt to airline hijackings by simply reinforcing the door to the flight deck. They never did– until the 2000s.
Are (light) aircraft often left in unlocked hangars "with fuel in the tank and keys in the ignition"? ISTR Bruce Schneier saying something along those lines, way back when. My impression was that they (aircraft owners & airport operators) basically relied on there being very few many people who can fly AND want to fence a stolen vehicle for a bag of smack. PS: yes, obviously a little airframe with 2hr of fuel in its tanks will make a much smaller boom than a big airframe with 20hr of fuel in its tanks, and obviously you'd have to train the rebels in how to fly the aircraft, instead of them just putting a sharp pencil in the regular pilot's ear and threatening to push it in.