If we wish to effectively tighten security on airlines, let's primarily look for terrorists instead of bombs. There can be a million possible locations for a bomb (yes, including the crotch, the intestines, etc), but there can only be a select few terrorists on an airline. So let's do what El-Al does, the Israeli airliner (one of the most threatened airlines in the world): their security personnel question all passengers and they evaluate the passengers' responses with their intuition. If you claim to be from San Francisco, they might ask you for the name of the local football team and who its quarterback is. With their intuitive sense they evaluate the whole person. If you've got nothing to hide you're less likely to break out in a sweat.
Furthermore, El-Al explicitly performs the quasi-taboo practice of racial profiling. It is a sad fact that over 77% of all suicide bombers are (a) male, (b) Arab, (c) Muslim, (d) under 29, (e) unmarried, and (f) have no children. A person that meets most of these criteria has to be thoroughly (and respectfully) searched if one wishes to enhance aviation security in a most effective way. It just doesn't make much sense to spend more time body-searching and questioning a 60 year old grandmother from Arkansas than an unmarried 23-year old male Arab Muslim from Yemen. The key here is that the person being profiled needs to be treated with absolute respect and dignity. Everyone boarding the plane is innocent (though perhaps suspect) unless proven guilty. I'm not endorsing racial profiling per se, but in the face of indisputable facts one needs to adopt an all-out realistic perspective for the sake of aviation security. I realize that this perspective may be highly controversial and unpopular, particularly among the naïve and idealistic, among those that meet some or all of the above criteria, or among those who already suffer from senseless racial profiling, such as male African- or Hispanic-Americans. Nonetheless, I stand by my comments as they are based on fact and statistics as related to the aviation industry.
And, of course, for ultimate aviation security, we as a nation need to cease invading and occupying other nations and rebuild a sense of trust with the international community (particularly with the Arab populace) by keeping our armies within our borders and by becoming more of the exemplary humanitarian nation we can be.
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