December 25th in the air

Once again, Christmas has been marked by a dramatic event with the terrorist attack in the Amsterdam-Detroit flight. In 2004, a Tsunami left Indonesian islands devastated with more than 200 000 victims. In 1999, France was blown up by a very strong storm causing the death of several hundreds of people.

I don’t know why but Christmas time is often marked by dramatic events.

The terrorist attack of this year occupies a particular place to me as it is something that could have been avoided if security rules have been applied correctly. I am not a specialist but I make a difference between natural events unpredictable for which the best we can do is being prepared and know how to behave to protect oneself.

The terrorist attack was a surprise to me when we know the efforts deployed by the airport security to manage the risk. Obviously it was not enough or there was a flaw in the system that terrorist had identified and used to execute their plan.

I cannot understand how this Nigerian man on a watch list has been able to take this flight to the United States and why the detectors have not been able to detect the explosives concealed under his under wears.

Does that mean that the stressful and long security controls we are submitted to are useless?

I talked about that with my mom who knows the detection technology to try to understand the situation and above all if the dramatic event that happen on the Delta flight 253 was just an isolated case or if there is really a risk.

I will not expose the theory of the explosive detection, but from what I understood, there are two technologies available that could screen passengers and detect explosives but there are debates about them related to privacy violation as they show details of the body.

Obviously, terrorists are well aware of that point and used it to develop their plan.

My mom travels a lot in Europe and I worry a lot about this event as I realize that flying conditions are not completely safe and I hope that decisions will be made soon to allow the use of the techniques able to protect us.