Robert Lemos

Anyone with kids knows that if you repeat something enough times, it sticks (or drives the parent to distraction, but that’s another post). So the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and their British equivalent should not be surprised at the latest list of stories now appearing describing a mixed bag of perceived threats. But this time, it isn’t the media that has become ultra-sensitive to the threats, but the passengers.

Forget about Snakes on Planes. This week we have The Mysterious Ringing Cell Phone on Planes, Two Rough-looking Southeastern Asian Men Looking Suspicious on Planes, and The Vomit Doggy-Bag Warning Note on Planes. Not to mention that, for the globe trotting Internet addict out there, getting a fix in-flight has become a whole lot harder.

Of course, people listening to the news know these are not bad movie plots, but real incidents.

A plane last week turned around an hour into the flight and headed back to London, because a cell phone started ringing and no one on board claimed it. Of course, it could have easily been left behind. They should be able to track the owner easily, I would imagine.

In any event, one would have to ask what threat a ringing cell phone poses. Obviously, cell phones have been used to detonate bombs. Yet this one was not attached to a bomb and could have easily been turned off. Turning the plane around seems to only accomplish one thing, assuage the fears of the passengers.

Assuaging the fears of passengers played a major role on another flight from Britain, when several groups decided to leave a plane rather than take off with two suspicious-looking Southeast Asian men on board. Apparently, they were looking at their watches constantly, dressed in overly heavy clothes, and speaking in a language that people thought might be Arabic. In the end, the men were escorted off the plane without incident and the plane took off.

The incident is the latest in a string of passenger policing, an activity that has almost always ends up with an innocent person pulled from the plane.

And, it would not be complete without some heartless vandal playing a trick on passengers. A flight to Eqypt was diverted on Friday after an airsickness bag was discovered with a note written on the back: “There is a bomb on board.” No bombs were found.

Are these reactions to the latest alleged terror threat reasonable? Yes. People have little guidance in these cases to determine what is a threat and what is not. So it’s reasonable–albeit sad–that a ringing cell phone, suspicious men, and a prank note cause such drastic reactions. In computer security, the reaction is similar to turning up the filter on an antispam program to too high a level: Suddenly, not only are Viagra spam seen as a threat, but so are recipes from dear Aunt Gracie as well.