A few days after the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, I purchased Microsoft Flight Simulator. The store actually had it on sale that day, but they had attached a note next to shelf that appologised for the inappropriate advertisement. How can Flight Simulator be inappropriate? Is the game dangerous? It is one of the most realistic games out there, but perhaps that's what makes it dangerous. It could be used for evil. But then again, so could a rusty toaster.

I had arrived in the US a few days earlier. Flying across the atlantic on an Airbus A330 with inflight entertainment above the little table in front of me. Then I had taken a domestic flight. I have flown around Europe for many years, and to the states for the last few years. I have made my way to Israel, Egypt and Turkey. Every country has its own airport security. Every airliner does things differently.

There are a few things which makes flying in Europe and in the United States different. It is demanded from you to be in the airport two hours before departure. Most commonly this is never really the case. You quickly figure out that an hour and a half or just an hour is plenty of time. However, it entirely depends upon the airliner you are flying and
where you are going. First of all, security has always been somewhat tighter in Europe. Everything has always been scanned, even my bags of photographic film. It says in bold letters on the X-RAY machine that photographic film will not be damaged by the scan, but who am I to trust? Occasionally they would ask me to step aside, where someone would go through all my hand luggage. This would usually happend when my hand luggage was so tightly packed that the X-RAY machine had difficulties separating the items within it. I remember one time traveling home from Greece with a donkey skull packed in a cardboard box. When that fucker went through the X-RAY machine, the eyes of the operator went wide. I am sure he had never seen anything like it before. A skull on an X-RAY operator's monitor looks gruesome, I tell you! For some reason I managed to tell them very quickly what it was. And that was it. They did not even open it. However, if you think European airports have tight security it is nothing compared to flying with EL-AL.

EL-AL is the national airline of Israel, and owned by the Israeli government. This is the carrier that every terrorist with respect for him or herself wants to hit. A few years ago I flew from Copenhagen, Denmark to Jerusalem, Israel with a group of people, on a hiking trip to Egypt and Israel. A flight to last a little over four hours. Before you even check in they ask you questions, such as:

"What is the intention of your trip?"

"Are you bringing any presents or the like to friends or relatives living in Israel, Jordan or the United Emirates?"

"Do you have any friends or relatives living in the Middle East?"

"Will you be leaving Israel, and if so, where to, and for how long?"

And so on.

At that point we thought the whole interrogation process was funny, even ridiculous. We were used to be asked if we had packed the bags ourselves, and if we had them with us the whole time. EL-AL specializes in personal interviews with ALL passengers. They have quite a record in airline security, since they have managed to avoid any hijackings for decades. Unfortunately they are not idiot proof. In 1992, a Boeing 747-200 Cargo aircraft, destined for Tel Aviv crashed into two apartment buildings in Amsterdam, after losing its two right wing engines just after take off. The Israeli government insisted for a long time that the plane was loaded with perfume and flowers, but investigators have since found out that that was far from the truth. Among other things, it was carrying 600 Lb. of depleted uranium and dimethyl methyl phosphonate, an essential compotent of Sarin gas, plus other military equipment. The aircraft originated from New York.

Not so long ago I flew from Denmark to Turkey. Going out, the security was pretty much the same as it has always been. Flying back however, was a bit different. First of all, before you can even enter the check-in area, your entire luggage is thoroughly scanned. This is most likely done to avoid anyone trying to blow up the airport itself. I have NEVER seen such huge X.-RAY machine in all my life. After check-in, they'd check your hand luggage again. Also, in the Airport it was not uncommon to see heavily armed guards walking around. I am not talking guns and pistols, but guards armed with automatic weapons.

On my way to the United States, which was before the attacks, the whole routine of checking your luggage was the same as always. They ask you the two questions they have to ask you. Check your passport, check your ticket, and give you your boarding pass. That's it, pretty simple and straightforward. Upon entering the US I had to recheck my luggage and walk through customs, since I was taking a connecting flight. Again, no problem. Well, excluding the idiot who had taken my luggage of the conveyor belt for no particular reason. That left me standing around the damn thing for half an hour, wondering whether they had left my luggage in London. Anyway, upon arriving at my final destination in the US my friends where standing outside the gate to greet me.

Those days are over now. At least friends and family cannot follow a passenger through the security to wave them goodbye at the gate. The goodbyes stop at the check-in counter. For a long time you were never able to that in Europe. Friends and family were kindly asked to wait outside the customs and conveyor belt halls, in a designated area. This has actually changed recently, with the introduction of the Shengen Cooperation. Shengen is part of the European Union's attempt to make traveling within it, easier. Most passport and customs check points by ground have been removed long ago and replaced with a letter box where you can post a message, if you want to, telling them that you are taking too many cigarettes across the border and would like to be taxed for it. These days, when you travel by air you only have to show your passport when you leave your departing country, and not when you arrive at your destination. Some countries have to yet to become members of the Shengen Cooperation. The UK, for instance, is not a member. This is probably due to the fact that we are talking about an Island with a very high volume of air traffic coming from every conceivable country around the globe.

On my way back from the US, things looked at first to be the same. At check-in they asked me the same questions: "Have you packed your bags yourself, and have they been with you all along?" Nothing changed there. Upon check-in I had to stand in queue for approximately 45 minutes. This seemed to be due to increased security. They were checking people's hand luggage more carefully and hand searching a lot of passengers. Most of the delay, though, was made of people who'd forgotten to take their mobile phones out of their pockets before stepping through the x-day. Once I came closer to the x-ray area, it was clear why the queue was so long. They were understaffed! This is one area of an airport that can NEVER be overstaffed. Two police officers were stationed next to the x-ray apparatus, killing time by exchanging jokes.

I remember talking to my family just after the attack and they wanted me to fly directly from where I was back to London, and avoid a domestic flight. At that point I just said yes, since it would have been a stupid idea to go into a discussion about airport security. Later I managed to convince my family that it would make no difference if I flew directly or not, since I would have to go through the same kind of security no matter what.

There is a tendency in the over bloated media landscape to say that everything will change. That the world is not the same anymore. Some say that aircraft and airport design will change, that security will tighten forever. That racial profiling will be standard. Perhaps it will for the time being, but it will not last long. Before this year is over, things will be back to normal. Security, or the lack of it, will resume to its normal level of idleness. Ideas have been tossed into the air about separating the cockpit from the rest of the aircraft. What good will that do? If you do this, you will be extending the fuselage with several meters, which involves a redesign of the wing structure. That will be
costly. Lets arm the pilots, great idea. The hijackers will no longer have to bring their own weapons. Whatever precaution we take, it will never be enough. Someone, perhaps a white man, will go right through whatever security might be present and come up with new ways to take over. There is no way that all American Airlines will start to use EL-AL methods. First of all it will take the american airline industry a lot of time and effort to implement a racial profiling system, maintain it, and with thousands of take-offs everyday, it will also be a very costly affair.

Will all users of Microsoft Flight Simulators be subjected to racial profiling. Perhaps all those virtual pilots are training to become yet another suicide pilot. Yes, lets outlaw Flight Simulator, and while we are at it what about Train Simulator. However, we should all continue to delve into the bloody world of Quake. Perhaps we can replace the face of the Quake enemies with the face of Osama Bin Laden. Then you can tell your friends that you are training to kill for your country, because justice will be served.

Your kind justice or my kind of justice, I ask?