Your Feel-Good Story of the Year, So Far
Korean-American Richard Cho has been hailed as a hero for helping subdue a terrorist and putting out a fire aboard a U.S. airliner heading for Detroit last Christmas. Cho, 40, immigrated with his family to the U.S. at age seven, and went to high school in Chicago. He majored in political science and sociology at Iowa State University, and since graduation has been working as a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines.
On Dec. 25, 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian with ties to al Qaeda, attempted to detonate a bomb aboard Northwest Flight 253, which was traveling from Amsterdam to Detroit with 290 passengers.
Jasper Schuringa, a director from Amsterdam, was the first to subdue Abdulmutallab after hearing a bang and seeing smoke. Cho rushed to help Schuringa. When the blanket that was covering the bomb caught fire, Cho quickly put it out with a fire extinguisher and prevented a major disaster aboard the flight.
U.S. President Barack Obama sent Cho a handwritten letter thanking him for his heroic act. Obama said in the letter that Americans will “forever remember” his heroism in saving the lives of passengers and protecting the U.S., and he offered his gratitude for Cho’s “dedication and courage.” [Chosun Ilbo]
I wonder if Cho had self-defense training. I will say this: passengers and crew certainly seem to been more effective than Federal Air Marshals at stopping things like this. Maybe instead of taking pointy things away from passengers, we should issue them.
The irony is that — if his parents are at all typical of immigrant Korean parents — they prolly weren’t too happy he became a flight attendant. I hope they are now. 🙂
Not to too vehemently defend air marshals, but they can’t be everywhere on a plane at once, so when passengers outnumber then 200:1, naturally the passengers (and crew) are more likely to be first responders.
But the presence of the air marshals (or the possibility of their presence on any flight) puts a big wrinkle in the plans of people who would want to commandeer a plane and then use it as a guided missile, as happened on 9/11. Terrorists instead are reduced to trying to destroy a plane very quickly.
I’m still perplexed by the motives of the latest former President of a London university Islamic Society to be arrested on terrorism-related offences.
If he’s imagining a reward of 72 virgins, why follow a course of action which was going to blow off his willy?
The right of passengers to keep and bear arms should be recognized. Since it’s hard to know in advance just what they’ll need, this right includes knives, clubs, guns, and Tasers.