>>>There is no way the terrorists could have stayed on their feet if the pilots would have done a dive and hard bank. <<<<br><br>But at least one of the hijackers claimed to have a bomb. The pilot would not know if that were a valid threat. He or she would also not now the hijacker's intentions, such as suicide crashes. Until Tuesday, such events were not part of our normal thought processes.<br><br>The pilots are trained to respond in a manner that should normally provide for the safety of the crew and passengers. There's little that can be done to prevent the suicide outcome unless that outcome is known, as seems to be the case in the Penn. flight where the passengers learned via phone and/or internet that the previous flights were crashed into buildings. <br><br>The press has been covering the changes in airport security extensively the past few days, and rightly so. But what I haven't heard is what operational changes have been made, if any (and I hope there have been changes made).<br><br>I don't know if any of these suggestions are valid, but here are a few that I have thought of:<br><br>1. Immediate communications to all airborne craft that a hijacking is in progress on another plane. This would alert aircrews to be on the alert and help reduce surprise attacks if another synchronized hijack is planned. Of course the hijackers prevented the hijacked transponder code from being entered, which would have delayed such a warning.<br><br>2. Automatic backup transponder that activates if primary transponder fails or is manually turned of while in flight. The backup transponder would be programmed by the primary settings during the preflight check and could not be changed during the flight. Only a hijack code in the primary could overwrite the secondary in flight. The secondary transponder would also be inaccessible from inside the aircraft to prevent in flight tampering.<br><br>3. Secure area autopilot. Certain high density or secure areas could have a transmitter that kicks in an autopilot setting if an aircraft encroached within a specified range. This is a little more "Buck Rogers" but it may be possible to develop a system that prevents over flying certain areas, such as the White House. Or prevents planes from dropping below a certain altitude over others, such as Manhattan. The planes could not have hit the towers if the plane could not drop low enough. Of course, such a system has its risks as well. Like all machines, it is susceptible to failure and it also takes control out of the pilot's hands, which may actually prevent a pilot from controlling a plane in an emergency.<br><br>Sorry for the rambling.<br><br><br><br>Willie Vannerson<br>McHenry, IL