This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
A Nigerian man who allegedly tried to set off his explosive underwear has thrown the whole airport security screening system into a cocked hat.
He was on a watch list, but not on the no-fly list evidently because there wasn’t enough information to justify grounding him. The suspect’s father, a retired Nigerian bank chairman, had reported his son’s extremist religious posturing to the U.S. embassy in Nigeria.
The man reportedly paid cash for a one-way ticket to the U.S. and had no checked luggage. Do they still board passengers with that kind of dodgy itinerary? And once he was on the plane, the fact that he stayed in the lavatory for a reported 20 minutes should have triggered some concern. If I’m in the in-flight loo for more than three minutes, there’s a line forming outside, and after five minutes, someone usually starts knocking on the door to get me out.
So henceforth, travelers flying here from abroad will have to suck it up, in the words of a Michigan congressman. New rules are in place governing what passengers can and cannot do on a plane, when the real problem was a man who should not have been on a plane in the first place.
Henceforth, if you’re flying here from abroad, you’ll find that, in the last hour of the flight, you can’t have anything on your lap, not even a blanket. No getting into your carry-on and no trips to the toilet. [See, your mother was right: she told you to go to the bathroom before you left Europe.]
On the upside, the struggling airlines, always looking for new revenue, may be able to install pay toilets right there in the seats.
-- Patt Morrison