Comments on: London’s Armed Rooftops http://blogs.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/2012/07/londons-armed-rooftops/ AirSpaceMag.com Blog Wed, 15 May 2013 08:30:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Paul Huizenga http://blogs.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/2012/07/londons-armed-rooftops/comment-page-1/#comment-6804 Paul Huizenga Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:36:41 +0000 http://blogs.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/?p=19388#comment-6804 Left unsaid is what good shooting down an approaching aircraft with surface to air missiles would be - a hijacked commercial jet would be fast enough at low altitude to give an engagement window measured in seconds, not minutes, and even a "successful" shoot-down would simply scatter pieces of burning airplane over a slightly different part of densely-packed London than the hijacker intended. Can you still call it "security theater" when a useless defensive measure is clearly, obviously just as bad as the threat it purports to counter? Left unsaid is what good shooting down an approaching aircraft with surface to air missiles would be – a hijacked commercial jet would be fast enough at low altitude to give an engagement window measured in seconds, not minutes, and even a “successful” shoot-down would simply scatter pieces of burning airplane over a slightly different part of densely-packed London than the hijacker intended.

Can you still call it “security theater” when a useless defensive measure is clearly, obviously just as bad as the threat it purports to counter?

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