Didn't Work Before...Didn't Work After

By Joseph Ashby

CNN has posted a brief editorial from airline pilot Steve Danyluk, who was in the air after the underwear bomber attempted to bring down Flight 253. He writes in part:

Following the attempt to bomb a passenger jet on Christmas Day, President Obama said that "once the suspect attempted to take down Flight 253, it's clear Homeland Security and Aviation Security took all appropriate actions."

I am a commercial airline pilot who was deep over the Atlantic flying from St. Kitts and Nevis for nearly six hours on Christmas Day following the attempted bombing on Flight 253.

I only learned about the incident after landing when I looked at the CNN Web site on my iPhone. I'm justifiably furious that I was not notified while airborne.

Our government clearly dropped the ball.

Janet Napolitano (like Obama, as quoted above) claimed that the government successfully carried out emergency procedures after receiving news of the attempted bombing. While that “success” is little consolation to those wanting to stop terrorists from igniting explosives on airplanes in the first place, it turns out Napolitano didn’t even do what she claimed.

The Homeland Security chief told CNN that “all” flights in the air were notified to take special measures within “an hour to 90 minutes.” By Mr. Danyluk’s account, that did not happen.

In short, the system didn’t work leading up the attack and it didn’t work after the attack.