Patterico has a post on the proximity of airliners on approach at LAX:
Not just psychologically, but less dangerous as well. As a downtown pedestrian, I have often noticed how absurdly close jet airliners seem to come to downtown’s skyscrapers. I once asked a friend who is an amateur pilot how long it would take for one of these airliners to divert from its flight pattern and crash into L.A.’s tallest skyscraper. He said twenty seconds.
To me, it looks like it would take only ten. But even twenty seconds seems like a very short time. Terrorists could take over a cockpit and crash the plane into the tower before most passengers even knew what was happening.
He links to a story in the LA times on the topic.
Shortly after 9/11 I lived in the San Diego area and was commuting back and forth between SD and San Francisco on a bi-weekly basis on a Boeing 737. Downtown San Diego is no LA, but the flight path upon landing came eerily close to the buildings there.
My awareness always increased in intensity and I watched the aisle knowing that I would only have a few seconds to take counter measures if some suspicious looking fellow made a move toward the cockpit.
I never much enjoyed those flights.
–
BTW–Patterico is often a great read. He takes the LA times to task on a regular basis for bias and inaccuracies.
February 11th, 2006 | Global War On Terror