I know quite a bit about planes, and the aviation industry. Can't really call myself an expert, but I am a fairly well-informed amateur. (I can't call myself an expert for two reasons: because I know how much I don't know, and because some people think experts are automatically biased and untrustworthy; they think it's better to listen to uninformed idiots. These anti-intellectuals are often known by the slang term “conservatives.”) I follow news when it relates to aviation. And lately there have been several stories that have made me shake my head. I understand some peoples' fear of flying, and of planes after 9/11. But so many twist their misunderstandings into pure silliness. Under-research and overreact.
A couple of weeks ago there were “eyewitness” reports that some planes at the Tripoli airport disappeared around the time militants took it over. The first report I saw said they had "stolen" the planes. Not really accurate; captured might be right. The reports also said "commercial planes," which to most people implies airliners. But the pictures showed fighters on a business jet, and destroyed airliners, neither of which would be very useful for malevolent acts. Turns out some of the other planes left before the attacks, which is documented. Many of the details were wrong, or sketchy, and yet people jumped to the conclusion that we were about to be attacked with airliners again, as on 9/11. And of course some leapt to blame Obama, because why not? Let's make political hay out of something we don't understand. Fret and fulminate over what turns out to be not much of anything.
"Stealing" 11 airliners, or even business jets, is a big deal, if it happened. And it would be an incredibly complicated undertaking. Even if they were spirited away, it would still be hard to use them for attacks, particularly across an ocean in the U.S. (in Europe, it would be a bit easier.) Many of those planes can only be fueled single-point, which requires special equipment. Long runways are also needed. People would notice. I'm not saying an attack couldn't happen. Just that it's extremely unlikely, because it'd be hard to pull off. Plus, we tend to look back (hey, it's cool, I'm a history buff after all) and to think that what happened before will happen again, to “fight the last war.” We can learn lessons from the past, of course. But too often while we're planning to deal with what happened before, something new happens. We need to learn from the past, and think ahead. And we're not always good at either of those things...
Then there was the flap over the FAA banning flights to Tel Aviv. There had been fighting in the vicinity, and rockets very close by. After the Malaysian airliner was shot down the week before over Ukraine, most people were focused on air safety in war zones. So, the FAA banned U.S. airlines from flying to Tel Aviv. (They, and other aviation authorities, should have been more proactive about bans in Ukraine and other places; if they had been, maybe MH17 wouldn't have been shot down.) Immediately Ted Cruz, known doofus, said that the ban was an attempt to punish Israel. Wait, what? This idiot knows, and cares, nothing about aviation safety. He was just trying to score points against the president. Other conservatives leapt on the bandwagon, and I had conversations with people who agreed with them. With no knowledge of aviation, with no concern for passengers, they made wild accusations and spouted conspiracy theories. “Obama hates Israel!” Not true, but why let facts get in the way? “He's trying to hurt Israel's tourism trade!” Um, few tourists were going there just then and most airlines were cancelling flights to Tel Aviv anyway because, duh, there was a war on. And of course Israel wasn't singled out- there were bans on U.S. airline flights over Iraq and Syria, those eternal holiday destinations... “Kerry flew in, which proves it was safe!” Uh, no. Diplomats fly into war zones all the time, to try to end the wars. Foreign service is a dangerous job.
Their political pressure got the ban lifted within a few days (which they perversely took as a sign that they were right about the reason for the ban.) They wore their ignorance of aviation, of diplomacy, of the world in general as a badge of pride.
Not everything is a conspiracy. Most things are just real life- complicated, mundane, confusing, etc. Strange lights in the sky don't equate to alien abductions. Planes "disappearing," even if true, does not equate to "flying them into buildings." Those are ridiculous leaps of logic. In both cases, leaps made most often by conservatives, who tend to be fearful of things they don't understand. Which means most things, since there is so much they don't understand...
Banking, or leaning, left...
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