The Fine Line Between Security and Paranoia

There is no doubt that terrorism has gone hand-in-hand with airline travel for decades now. Recent news only strengthens this link as terrorists continue to exploit the gaps in airline security for the advancement of their cause. Therefore, this strong link should only convince us that an extremely tight level of airline security is of the utmost importance in protecting us against future terrorist attacks, where all precautions are taken and no stone is left un-turned.

But at the same time, one may also look at the events from this past week or so and say that maybe we are going a bit overboard... not in our security, but in our paranoia. Granted, many of these events truly could have been catastrophic had the proper precautions not been taken, but there's a fine line between tight-security and paranoia that we should be wary of.

For example, I commend our security services for taking the proper precautions when an Excel airlines flight was diverted for an emergency landing due to a bomb threat. I also agree with the numerous instances of temporary terminal closures across the nation's airports based on suspicious liquids, especially since this is a very new area for our security teams. In my mind, both of these examples just prove to me that airline travel is much safer now than it used to be and emphasize to me that all valid security concerns are definitely worth the added inconvenience they place on air-travelers.

But there are also other recent air-travel security issues that I feel cross the line between tight-security and paranoia, and thus portray our fears in a negative manner. For example, was the 59 year-old woman really such a threat to the safety of the plane that her claustrophobia required an emergency landing while being escorted by two armed F-15 fighter jets? Now I know that this was only a week or so after British Authorities foiled a terrorist plot on a flight traveling a similar route... but was such an extreme reaction to this woman's claustrophobia really necessary? I tend to think no...

But then again, how does one know whether the fine-line between tight-security and paranoia is actually ever crossed? After all, hind-sight is always 20/20.

Nevertheless, these events just stress the fact that we need to focus on tightening our security even further, while continually suppressing the ever-increasing paranoia associated with air-travel. Fear and paranoia related to air-travel must be abandoned, especially as we try to prove to the terrorists that they will never manage to impede the flow of our lives.