A method to ensure I’ll never fly a passenger carrier again (Updated)

Instapundit linked to this Slashdot item which lead me to this blog entry over at the Washington Times.

A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers (video also shown below).

I’m still not 100% sure that this isn’t some elaborate hoax as I can’t for the life of me imagine some idiot bureaucrat or politician actually suggesting we do this. However, please read the WashTimes entry for the whole story.

In a nutshell, the suggestion is that an electronic, GPS-enabled bracelet would replace a boarding pass for passengers getting on an airliner. That bracelet would, supposedly, carry data relating to the passenger (as with an RFID tag) and permit the flight crew to immobilize a given passenger either via some control console or via a laser designator that’s merely pointed at the target. The bracelet would deliver a Taser-like charge rendering the target immobile and/or unconscious.

What’s making me actually consider that this is real is the response posted by the contractor allegedly involved in the project, Lamperd Less Lethal. On their web site they posted a response to the WashTimes story, located here. After basically saying that Lamperd was not involved in the discussions linked on the WashTimes story wherein a DHS official expressed interest in this idea and that they’re just the contractor, they had this to say about the bracelet and the proposed use:

The bracelets remain inactive until a hijacking situation has been identified. At such time a designated crew member will activate the bracelets making them capable of delivering the punitive measure – but only to those that need to be restrained. We believe that all passengers will welcome deliverance from a hijacking, as will the families, carriers, insurance providers etc. The F-16 on the wingtip is not to reassure the passengers during a hijacking but rather to shoot them down. Besides activation using the grid screen, the steward / stewardess will have a laser activator that can activate any bracelet as needed by simply pointing the laser at the bracelet – that laser dot only needs to be within 10 inches of the bracelet to activate it.

The only way these bracelets would be effective after “a hijacking situation has been identified” is if every passenger is wearing one. Otherwise how would you know you’d tagged the right person or group? Considering that 9/11 was the last hijacking of a US carrier and that the likelihood of another such hijacking succeeding is so close to zero it’s not funny due to the completely predictable reaction of the passengers of such a flight swarming the hijackers with intent to kill them, I don’t see where the threat level requires this approach. I’m really supposed to trust overworked and agitated flight attendants to be 100% infallible in not “accidentally” firing one of these bracelets off due to inattention or because some jackass is making their lives a bit difficult? I’m supposed to trust airline mechanics, who can’t seem to get all of the in-flight TV displays working on a regular basis to have this system glitch-free? And I’m supposed to trust all of them to get it right while I tie a “loaded” taser onto my 7-year old daughter’s or my 70+ year-old mother’s wrist?

Guess again. I guarantee you that any such attempt by the government or the airlines will be the death knell of passenger aviation in this country and I’ll happily lead the way. I swear to all of you, before God Almighty, that I will never willingly do such a thing.

And you see, while part of me firmly believes that there are bureaucrats in our government and in some parts of private enterprise who would actually suggest such a course of action, it’s precisely the stupidity of it that makes me suspect this is just a hoax or was an idea that got someone seriously fired. Or that someone has taken something completely out of context. While Lamperd has posted something about it, their post lends weight to the notion that someone is considering it. I cannot believe there are enough people in the United States who would submit to such a process that anyone could seriously imagine it would work.

I’ll keep an eye out for more, but let’s take this with a huge grain of salt and not overreact.

Update: Michelle Malkin also carried this story and got an e-mail update where DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) flatly denies they are looking into the use of this kind of technology. From someone identified as an “S&T spokesman”:

Sometimes it just amazes me how these stories evolve. Let me start off by saying that the Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate nor TSA have been pursuing shock bracelets for airline passengers as alleged by the Washington Times Blog.

As Michelle points out, stories like these evolve when letters written by officials from DHS – on DHS letterhead – explicitly refer to the possibility of using such devices “to improve air security, on passenger planes.” The part that’s bothering me is that this denial, allegedly coming from a spokesman for a directorate within DHS, does not appear on any publicly-verifiable resource. I’d feel a lot better about this if there was an official release complete with the spokesman’s actual name.