Yes, it’s true that the bomber on the plane could employ a wireless trigger of some kind, without the aid of WIFI or cell phone connectivity…

…but good luck getting the triggering device, at least, past security. Cell phones, on the other hand, routinely and effortlessly clear security.

As for the cell phone signal only being useful up to 500 or so feet: If you stop and think about it, the best moment (from a knucklehead terrorist’s point of view) to trigger the bomb is just before the landing gear is retracted, just after the wheels are off the ground. Any pilot will attest that the plane is most vulnerable at that moment, when it is just becoming airborne… far more so, seemingly counter-intuitively, than while the plane’s trying to land.

If the plane explodes at that moment, it’s not only going to kill everyone on board, but it will also more effectively rain the fiery mess down onto (and so, therefore, maim and kill) more people on the ground…

…and it’s the NUMBER of people maimed or killed which most interests terrorists. That’s why terrorist suicide bombers need rarely be feared when s/he’s in the company of only a person or two… or even a crowd, as long as it’s very small. Terrorists are interested in NUMBERS…

…and the greatest kill numbers can be achieved by blowing-up the plane when it’s between 100 and 500 feet off the ground… at which there is plenty of cell phone signal.

As far as confiscating cell phones, there’s an easier way: Just have cell phone jamming circuitry in the ceiling of the plane along its entire length.

WIFI is even easier to stop on a plane.

Whether or not airlines should do it, I don’t know. I both understand and appreciate the argument against it; I might even share it if I thought about it long enough.

But make no mistake about the pure technology of it (and I say this from the position of someone with 33 years in IT and other forms of high-tech): Having the ability to communicate with the WIFI or cell phone receiver on a bomb trigger via a cell phone or smartphone or notebook/netbook computer — all of which can get through security without a problem, where some kind of odd-looking wireless device with a button on it would likely not — would be convenient, indeed, and invaluable, in fact, for any suicide bomber…

…or even for a bomber on the ground who simply found a way to get the WIFI or cell phone receiver controlled trigger and bomb onto the plane by some means.

And though I understand the comments here regarding the unlikelihood of that given that the idiot terrorists, up ’til recently, couldn’t even figure out how to explode their tennis shoes or underwear…

…only temporary sense of safety, at best, may be derived from them. There are many capable engineers who are either terrorists, or who are at least sympathetic. It’s ridiculous to assume that they’re all a bunch of Middle-Eastern equivalents of some dysfunctional character from an old episode of Green Acres…

…as the most recent events in the news clearly demonstrate.

Don’t make the fatal mistake of underestimating this enemy. I’m not saying, as those on the socio-political right are saying, that terrorists are everywhere, or that it’s a Muslim thing or anything like that. That’s not what I’m talking about. As it is foolish to underestimate the ability of terrorists to finally learn how to get it right, it’s equally foolish to believe that all — or even most — Arab-Americans (or even non-American Arabs) and/or Muslims are terrorists or even sympathizers. The VAST (and I strees the word) majority of Arabs and other Muslims are as alarmed and upset by knucklehead terrorists as anyone else.

So I don’t want to come across as though I agree with the alarmists. I’m simply saying that the technology required to connect a WIFI or cell phone controlled trigger to a bomb in a suitcase or piece of cargo in the hold of an airplane, and then to detonate it via either WIFI or the cell phone network as the aircraft’s wheels clear the ground, but before it reaches an altitude of 500 feet, is easy. Scary easy, in fact. Getting it on the plane, though, would be not-so-easy… which, of course, means that the whole thing’s not as easy, after all. But my point is that the pure technology of it, were airport security not a factor, is a no-brainer.

And, by the way, for the record, I’ve gotten five bars of AT&T cell phone signal WAY higher than 500 feet in my life. So I’m only saying 500 feet elsewhere in this posting because another commenter suggested that cell phone signals above that altitude are essentially non-existent or are of such sub-standard quality as if to be effectively so.

The comment about the solution being just banning all airplanes was kinda’ funny, though. [grin]

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Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com