Stop The Panic - Now!

Americans in search of perfect security are just one step away from paralyzing air travel altogether. It's time to take our destiny away from the security dictators:

This country needs to get a grip. We need a slap in the face, a splash of cold water.

On Saturday, 57-year-old Jules Paul Bouloute opened an emergency exit inside the American Airlines terminal at Kennedy airport. Alarms blared and sirens flashed. Bouloute later told police that he'd opened the door by accident.

Which is what you'd assume. Sure, the exit was clearly marked, but it happens all the time, does it not? In office buildings, shopping malls, hospitals and airports, well-intended people become distracted and pass through restricted doorways. And you would think our airport security force would keep this in mind and react accordingly, and not with the assumption that every errant traveler is a terrorist poised for mass murder.

...Unfortunately, this is America 2010, and the response at JFK was neither rational nor surprising. All of Terminal 8 was evacuated for more than two hours. Police then swept through the building with dogs and SWAT teams (because, you see, a terrorist wouldn't quietly drop an explosive device into a trash barrel; he would first set off alarms, in order to...?).

...But what shocks me the most is that throughout all the coverage of the incident, including numerous interviews with ticked-off passengers and somber-voiced officials, not once has anybody raised the point that maybe — just maybe — we overreacted. Everyone, instead, is eager to blame Bouloute.

...What caused the delays and what hassled so many travelers was not the defendant's actions, but our mindless and hysterical response to them.

The media and officials, in all possible gravity, keep describing the incident as a "security breach." Not to harp on semantics, but am I the only person who finds this silly? Granted I'm not privy to every detail, but let me go out on a limb here: It was an accident. A simple and minor accident. As Bouloute's attorney told reporters, "He just walked through the wrong door."

...What has become of us? Are we really in such a confused and panicked state that a person haplessly walking through the wrong door can disrupt air travel nationwide, resulting in mass evacuations and long delays? "The terrorists have won" is one of those waggish catch-alls that normally annoy me, but all too often it seems that way. Our reactionary, self-defeating behavior has put much at stake — our time, our tax dollars and our liberties.

And where is American Airlines in all of this? It has refused to comment, citing the "ongoing investigation."

...And that's a shame. I realize that airlines are in a very tough position. They face extreme liability issues and cannot be seen as lobbying against security, even if what they're complaining about is justified. And the airlines, remember, caught an awful lot of flak, most of it undeserved, in the aftermath of Sept. 11. But at some point they need to stand up. Needless security woes make their customers angry and are one of the prime reasons that many people choose not to fly. At times the industry's silence and squeamishness suggest a business model of masochistic capitulation.

In Europe carriers have been feistier. After the foiled liquid bomb plot in London in 2006, British Airways threatened to sue the British Airports Authority over a draconian carry-on ban that resulted in scores of cancellations and massive delays. A group of airlines led by budget carrier Ryanair prepared a half-billion-dollar lawsuit against the British government, hoping the threat of legal action would inspire ministers to rescind some of the luggage restrictions, described by Ryanair as "illogical and unworkable."

Eventually the rules were relaxed.

Never mind screening delays, how about the cost of unscheduled diversions? Ever since 9/11, skittish fliers have touched off a plague of in-flight false alarms. A passenger looks at somebody the wrong way, and the next thing you know fighter jets are scrambled and you're headed to Newfoundland. Aircraft are evacuated while canine units inspect hundreds of suitcases. For an airline the trickle-down price of such disruptions — fuel costs, crew costs, passenger misconnects and downstream delays — can run well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

...Calming down will not make us "less safe," as security zealots are wont to argue. Quite the opposite, it would free up time and resources, allowing us to focus on more credible and potent problems.

...What is it about us, as a nation, that has made us so unable to remember, and unable to cope?