Frum Flight Fright

Do you remember the good old days, when you could board a plane without taking off your belt and shoes, could keep a convenient pair of nail scissors and a bottle of contact lens fluid in your hand luggage, and could transfer at a stop-over air port without fretting over whether someone would demand to throw away the duty free booze you bought at the original port of departure?

I know, it’s starting to become a faded memory belonging to that lost world of one — state-run — TV channel when Europe was still divided between East and West and unicorns roamed the land.

Following the attempted Christmas bombing of a Denver-bound flight, where someone tried to detonate an explosive devise that he was hiding in his underwear, security levels have been raised even further. Now, apparently, you’re no longer allowed to conceal your groin with a blanket on transatlantic flights, and soon we will all be forced to undergo body scans before boarding.

In America, the paranoia recently caused a pilot on a flight from La Guardia to Louisville, Kentucky to land his plane as soon as he possibly could since someone in the cabin reported that a suspicious looking kid was behaving weirdly — probably trying to set off a bomb.

I can only imagine how this deeply embarrassed teenager must have pleaded with a stewardess, trying to convince her that he wasn’t actually out to kill them all — but just wanted to put on his tefillin.

Read more about it here.