Morons Threatening Canadian Airlines

[jamapple]

I hear, and agree with you all re: our laws. I just thought that threats to airlines were fast and swift with harsh penalties?

[FreeRights]

From a security management perspective, I find their reaction to bomb threats interesting.

It tends to be very financially cumbersome for larger corporations to treat every bomb threat the same (by activating emergency evacuation procedures) when history shows that they are not.

The vast majority of actual or attempted explosive-based threats were done unannounced. This is to say, if a person absolutely intends to bomb somewhere, the last thing that person is going to do is tell you he's doing it.

There are several other layers of bomb threat determination that I won't go into on a public forum, but these industry best practices haven't been applied to Westjet and I'm curious why.

[Dizzy1]

Given the amount of airliners that have been either hijacked or blown up by a bomb, the threat has to be taken very seriously, although most of the threats are probably some bored teenager.

Every threat is carefully analyzed in regards the threat level and the corresponding action is put into play ... diverting, continuing on to a destination or returning to the point of origin. Then its decided if the passengers should be evacuated or left on the plane (what a lively thread that was).

As someone else mentioned in this thread, it really is a catch 22, what to do. Diversions and interuptions to the flight schedules is big money for any airline, but the cost of an incident is even more.

I'm by no means a security expert, and I'm sure there are other measures one can take, but bomb threats towards aircraft is a very different scenario as compared to a mall. Once a threat is given, there are very few options left to assure the safety of the passengers and crew.

Just for some humor, I know of two pretty comical bomb threat incidents over the years. The first one was some girl who just got dumped by her boyfriend (or the other way around) and to get even, she called the airline and said he had a bomb on the plane with him. As far as I know, she's still sitting in a German jail cell.

Then there was an incident in Greece where a businessman was running late for his flight, so to buy some time, he called his secretary and told her to call the airline and patch them through. Once he got through to the airline, he told them his flight had a bomb on it in the hopes it would delay it. What he didn't know, is that when his secretary called them, she gave them his full name and said he wanted to speak to them. By the time he got to the gate, the authorities were waiting for him. LMAO LOL

[FreeRights]

Given the amount of airliners that have been either hijacked or blown up by a bomb, the threat has to be taken very seriously, although most of the threats are probably some bored teenager.

Every threat is carefully analyzed in regards the threat level and the corresponding action is put into play ... diverting, continuing on to a destination or returning to the point of origin. Then its decided if the passengers should be evacuated or left on the plane (what a lively thread that was).

As someone else mentioned in this thread, it really is a catch 22, what to do. Diversions and interuptions to the flight schedules is big money for any airline, but the cost of an incident is even more.

I'm by no means a security expert, and I'm sure there are other measures one can take, but bomb threats towards aircraft is a very different scenario as compared to a mall. Once a threat is given, there are very few options left to assure the safety of the passengers and crew.

Like anything else, it comes down to risk - the risk of avoiding the financial repercussions of conducting an unplanned landing in the very slim instance that a bomb threat is real (there is infrastructure in place to prevent that from actually occurring) vs the perceived reputational, financial, and life safety loss in the event that the threat is actual and results in casualties.

While there has obviously been bomb attacks on airplanes specifically, I do not know of a single one where the bomb attack was called in either specifically or non-specifically beforehand. Based on the statistics, additional resources should be panned toward preventing unannounced explosives from attending a plane, if necessary, rather than budgeting for evacuating every plane that receives a threat.

[Dizzy1]

I get what you're saying, but I'm still in the opinion that its a catch 22. Given the frequency of them over the last few years, I'm sure that the airlines and Governments are in serious discussion on new procedures.

There have been a few incidents where the threat was called in before the bomb went off, but I'd have to do some research for the specific flights where that happened.

This isn't isolated to Canada either, just as an example, in the beginning of June, the US had 5 in one day involving 3 domestic flights and 2 international flights all in one day ...

http://roadwarriorvoices.com/2015/06/02 ... -going-on/

Anyone who gets caught pulling a hoax like this should be treated like anyone who actually carries it out and sent down to Gitmo for a nice Cuban holiday.

[Atomoa]

If these were mostly WestJet threats, could someone be trying to harm the company itself and not so much harming people with a bomb?

[Rwede]

If these were mostly WestJet threats, could someone be trying to harm the company itself and not so much harming people with a bomb?

Are you implying that it's okay to threaten a company's viability?

[Treblehook]

It is possible that whoever is making these threats is may be motivated by the perception that he/she has been wronged by the airline or the airline industry, and that person is trying to even things up by disrupting their operation. Or perhaps the culprit is just an unstable person who gets their jollies out of this kind of serious mischief. Either way, I am sure the authorities consider the fact that ignoring these threats will only cause the culprit to "up the ante" as it were. I think the airlines and the authorities have a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario on their hands with this type of crime. Have you ever seen the authorities ignore a bomb threat to the local highschool? I guess the axiom of "better safe than sorry" wins out every time with this stuff.

[westbankkid]

Talk to the US. They monitor every cell phone in the world. Or so they say.

[Dizzy1]

It could be someone with a grudge against the airline, could be a disgruntled employee, could be a couple of kids daring each other, could be a group of extremists testing the water. Might not even be the same person or group, however, I find that very unlikely.

My guess would be just some younger people looking for a kick - the same group who think its hilarious flashing laser beams into the flight deck at night.

[Atomoa]

Are you implying that it's okay to threaten a company's viability?

Holy Cow Stephen Harper's communication super team, settle down.

I asked a question. It's mostly Westjet affected.

WestJet recently voted to unionize I've read, or the pilots at least. People who disagree might me trying to hurt the company financially.

[Rwede]

WestJet recently voted to unionize I've read, or the pilots at least. People who disagree might me trying to hurt the company financially.

The unionization is enough of a threat to the long-term viability of the company. Idiots who phone in fake bomb threats should be hung from the longest yardarm.

[Hassel99]

Are you implying that it's okay to threaten a company's viability?

No I think he is implying that the threat is more of a financial one (west jets reputation) than an actual bomb that could hurt passengers. Clearly we still need full due diligence and still must take the same actions.

If I was a betting man I would put my money on disgruntled ex-employee.

[logicalview]

If I was a betting man I would put my money on disgruntled ex-employee.

Yeah, didn't anybody see the movie "Speed"? It's clearly Dennis Hopper.



I can't believe that this guy isn't caught already. What with all of the fear-mongering I've seen from the Chicken Little crowd over Bill C-51 I would have thought that Harper would have personally rolled over this guy's house with an Abrams battle tank by now. People are scared of being arrested for posting anti-Harper comments on Castanet, apparently, and yet some clown can call in bomb threats at will on airplanes and no one can find him. Weird how reality conflicts with the sky is falling loon squad's version of what Canada is supposed to be like post Bill C-51. Just weird.

[maryjane48]

more lies who is scared of posting anti harper comments ? btw harper can suck it :)