Anybody have ideas about what can be used on an airplane as an improvised weapon? I have considered using my belt or keys. And I am not talking about hijacking the plane but overtaking a hijacker or other nutjob.

You won't get many replies. A thread like this was recently closed and locked on another forum.

The moderator explained that the FBI monitors his site and many others. He says knows this because he knows someone there who told him.

Should someone actually come up with a great idea, The Powers That Be will know about it right away and promptly have it banned.

Also, should The Powers That Be decide the forums' threads contain material others should not read, a word in right ear can cause your ISP to shut your forums down with little or no notice.

The moderator didn't want any trouble and didn't want to cause any trouble for his ISP, so he closed the thread.

Freedom of speech is a fragile thing. You are not allowed to yell "Fire!" in a movie theater. Topics such as yours have become taboo in our post-9/11 world, especially on the Web, where privacy is an illusion.

Since it hasn't been locked I'll chip in. The first thing that comes to mind is 3-4 socks stuffed one inside the other, and filled with as many key sets and as much pocket change as I can scrounge up from other passengers. Think of the old expression "looks like he got hit in the face with a bag of nickels" and you'll know what I mean. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

While I'm not 100% sure I'd believe that the FBI looks at these, you couln't convince me that the TSA does NOT look at them.

Anything showing up "too many" ( >=0, maybe? ) times in this type of conversation will soon be on the banned list, even if they aren't on the official ones. Just like those dangerous iPods that got seized last year in Novermber and December- not on the list, but some inspectors felt they were dangerous.

Sneak into the toilet, rip out the toilet seat and use it as a boomerang - take out multiple targets with one throw !
<img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
sorry couldn't resist ...

ok, I missed the IPOD discussion, why did a simple MP3 player get banned or confiscated???

Yeah,
I thought about how this post might sound after I posted it but it was too late then. This is not a topic that I spend alot of time on, I'd rather be outdoors having fun. But, since the tapes of the United Flight 93 have been on the air and hearing these people trying to take out the terrorists it got me to thinking.

Osama may not have intended it, but the biggest casualty in 911 was not the 2000+ dead. It was the right to free speech, privacy & the huge taxpayer expenditures on security.

I think it is a given now that passengers and crew will fight back. I also think that the various government agencies (DHS, FBI, etc.) are well aware that this is now the case, and plan for it. That is why I doubt a topic like this would get very much, if any, scrutiny.

One thing they could never ban is hands, feet, and teeth. Maybe a good self defense class is the answer. Fighting skills can come in handy in a lot more locations/situations than an airplane, and it's good exercise too.