Are the skies safe?

I've loved to fly since my very first flight as a teenager. I had ridden buses and trains but I thought flying was something I would never be able to do because it was so expensive. But mom and dad didn't want me to be deprived of that experience so my first flight was from Little Rock to Tulsa to visit relatives and I was in absolute awe. The stewardesses were young and beautiful, it seemed they served you whatever you wanted and the view was the most incredible thing I had ever seen. Cars and trucks on the highways below appeared to be not much bigger than ants and I was also struck by the different shapes and designs on the land due to different farming practices. It was a total treat for me and is as fresh in my mind today as it was on the day I lived it for the first time.

So I was hooked after that and flew every chance I got. In fact, I would fly even when taking a car, bus or train would have made for a shorter trip and certainly a much less expensive one. I was a coach flyer until my wife and I flew to Las Vegas on my 30th birthday. I booked those tickets first class and we each had another memorable experience we'll never forget. The difference between first class and coach was stunning. The drinks were served in crystal glasses, a meal was served that would have rivaled a Michelin rated restaurant and the individual service we received was constant and friendly. As I had been hooked on flying after my first flight, I was now hooked on first class flying and never flew coach again.

Although the experience of flying first class has declined over the years, it's still far superior to coach. You're the first to board the plane and the first to leave, the seats are larger and more comfortable than coach, the leg room is better, the service is similar to the way it's always been and drinks are provided as soon as you're secure in your seat. It's a wonderful way to get from one place to another and the extra price you have to pay has always been worth it to me.

Forty percent of the people are afraid to fly and 10 percent do whatever they can to avoid airplanes altogether but I've never been apprehensive about flying. Maybe that's because I started when I was a teenager and few teenagers are afraid of anything. I certainly wasn't because I thought I was bulletproof and would live forever. I don't take that for granted any longer but that belief affected everything I did when I was growing up. Even as I got older, I never worried about flying because I knew that flying was infinitely safer than driving a car and a whole lot more fun. So the occasional airplane crash didn't influence me at all.

But, at least for Americans, there has been a new threat since September 11, 2001, and that threat is either a terrorist attack on board an airplane or a terrorist bomb placed in the cargo section. These are real threats because they've happened before with catastrophic results and even though, with better procedures and closer attention, they could have been avoided, they weren't. I learned in my law enforcement experience that when you follow the same procedure over and over without anything bad happening, it's easy to become lax and not follow it precisely in the future. I'm sure airport security, baggage handlers, and airline employees encounter the same thing. And it only takes one security lapse or one incomplete response to see a plane blown out of the sky with everyone on board perishing.

So this is my concern today. The airlines are safer than they've ever been and airplanes themselves can literally take-off, fly to their destination and land with little pilot input. In fact, pilot error is the biggest cause of airplane crashes, not mechanical failures or breakdowns.

But the best-built planes and the most experienced pilots cannot prevent a failure they have no control over and that failure is most likely to be a lone, deranged person who's killing everybody because of their wrong-headed belief that that's what their God wants them to do. And because their mission is so sacred to them, they're likely not to be detected until it's too late.

When the plane blows up.