Another sad indicator of the state of the industry is that most of the young sprouts likely don't realize that in the pre-Elizabeth Dole days, flight crews did NOT have to pass through the metal detector or be screened -and many of us carried our own 'anti-hijack'/security tools in the Jepp Kit.

My choice was a nice, compact Taurus semi-auto 9mm with a 15 shot clip. "Take me to Habana!" I DON'T think so! Not only did I not ever plan on meeting Fidel, I was prepared to help any hijacker to meet his Maker -AND it sure gave comfort on some of those 'iffy' layovers, like OAK & JFK.

Somehow, without DOT & TSA bungling,I think flying was a lot safer back then. . not to mention layovers.