Monday, December 28, 2009

Terrorism aboard airliners - the Schuringa Rule

Hat tip to Jasper Schuringa, the Dutch film director who tackled Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the guy who tried to blow up a civil airliner over Detroit. He heard the bang, saw the smoke and took action.

Soon after 9/11 I wrote to Government asking them to advise airline passengers to overpower any hijackers in order to avert threat of an airliner attack on Nuclear Power stations. They refused, saying that it might lead to claims against them if anyone got hurt!

Clearly, if there is a terrorist on board, the passengers are all at real risk of death. Their best chance is to overpower the terrorist. Jasper Schuringa acted logically, but he had to cross several passive passengers to do his thing. All it takes is for the steward, after explaining where the lifejackets are, to as all able bodied people to overpower anyone who threatens an act of terrorism. That way, activism becomes the default, not the exception.

It could be called the Schuringa Rule.

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