u/Impressive-Field1484

More of a discussion than a question. We all know what happened with the FlyDubai incident this week. It would seem silly not to collectively learn something from this and “patch” the security hole here. Historically we have placed near absolute trust in our pilots and crew, and based on surface-level logic, that is a pretty okay idea. But when the co-pilot smuggles a knife and commandeers the airplane, that’s a pretty big problem.

FlyDubai incident aside, there’s a whole lot of other issues this creates which probably shouldn’t be discussed in a public forum.

Is it time to permanently end the KCM program, and maybe replace it with TSA PreCheck lane access or an Evolv scanner for crew? Heathrow has done 100% crew screening for a very long time, and while crew absolutely hate it, there is little to no chance that incident could have occurred ex-LHR. Honestly, even TSOs themselves should probably be pulled at random to be screened at this point, just to really ensure the integrity of the system.

(This thread is NOT about the political motives, conspiracy theories, etc. I have my own opinions on those things I will not share here. This is purely to talk about the screening process and if lessons should be learned & changes made in response to those lessons)

I just got the “1 hour to arrival” notification from Flighty. Nearly immediately, the “to prepare for landing…” PA is played, and the FAs begin their final walkthrough - still at FL340. Now to be clear, it’s not the conclusion of cabin service I’m so concerned with. It’s spending 90% of domestic flights in the taxi/takeoff/landing posture.

This means: no laptops or iPads with attached keyboards. No seat reclining, period. No using the lav. Carry-on items fully stowed (sucks in bulkhead). Window shades open in exit rows. In modern times, unless you are flying transoceanic or maybe transcon, you are spending damn near the entire flight in this posture as opposed to the old days where this usually occurred 15-20 mins prior to landing.

At this rate, maybe narrowbodies should have the seat recline and tray tables completely removed from all rows, and the inflight WiFi portal should just display a message that the device cannot be used onboard at all for anything larger than an iPad Pro. And maybe this posture should just be maintained for the entirety of all domestic flights for consistency/so people can prepare.

I am all for safety, but there is the “common sense” kind of safety, and the “the safest thing is to simply not fly at all” level of safety. We are quickly skewing closer to the latter than the former.