Comments on LARES BLOG: Why NOT to pick padlocks on a Flight

Holy Crap! I'm surprised you didn't get jumped by ...

2009-04-30T14:50:00.000-06:00

Holy Crap! I'm surprised you didn't get jumped by the Hero. That is a great story though. Impressed with how you kept calm and rational despite the potential for a completely southbound ending. I've always wondered about traveling with picks. How do you get permission to do that? Is there a card or some sort of certification you have due to it being part of your work?

What a freaking hoot! Gotta love the hysterical fl...

2009-04-08T10:42:00.000-06:00

What a freaking hoot! Gotta love the hysterical flight attendants!

Wow! Incredible story, Chris. Very cool under pres...

2009-04-07T21:10:00.000-06:00

Wow! Incredible story, Chris. Very cool under pressure. I'm pretty sure I would have blown my cool. Thanks for sharing.
-jhs

Good story Chris and it goes to show you how secur...

2009-04-06T16:38:00.000-06:00

Good story Chris and it goes to show you how security conscious the US has become post 9/11/2001. Strictly from an operational/safety standpoint; one response may have been to detain you and ask you for identification so that the pilot could call control and have the story checked out. I would imagine that this whole event could have been easily avoided, without making an emergency landing.

On a similar note: I had a somewhat similar experience. I was flying back from California and was SSH’ing into one of my boxes from my blackberry. Well the teacher sitting next to me flipped out, saying that I was going to "crash the plane"... "And to turn off the cell phone". I naturally asked her the teacher:

Me: "have you been in the hospital and seen all the signs not to use your cell phone?"

Her: "Well yes, but that isn't the same, this is a plane, and you can crash it".

ME: "And the hundreds of people that left messages for their families and called in reports on 9/11, they were responsible for crashing those planes?"

Her: "well NO, but it's still dangerous"

Me: I could tell I was getting nowhere, so
Prior to takeoff I put the phone in airplane mode. (Which turns off the radio, so no interference can occur, even though as I illustrated to the math teacher it's highly unlikely).

Her:"OMG! What are you doing looking at your
phone in midflight??" Stewardess.

ME: "So now I not only have to explain to this
math teacher that I was checking the time, but
I had to also explain the situation to the airline attendant" Thankfully, the airline attendant had more common sense and it was not an issue.

However, it goes to show you just how unreasonable and how people can jump to conclusions post 9/11.

Chris, I've just picked this up through twitter......

2009-04-06T13:50:00.000-06:00

Chris, I've just picked this up through twitter...classic story. The problem being a gun-for-hire is while you have great references, you never have the badge to calm people down. I did a social engineering test once and spent the evening with a physical sec guard with a revolver trying to explain I was licensed for what I was doing. Too many Barney Fife's in this world...

cool story chris.

2009-04-06T12:40:00.000-06:00

cool story chris.