If you've got genuine cyber-terror expertise, then you know the inherent danger of offering wireless Internet access to business passengers during flights.  It's patently absurd from a security perspective.  Yet that is exactly what the FAA is now going to allow.  It's an air disaster waiting to happen.

The FAA has long known that something as small as a cell phone can interfere with the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems of an aircraft in flight.  Every stewardess makes this clear when they give you their pre-flight safety briefings.  The problem is that cell phones, wireless network cards, and other broadcast devices all generate digital pulses of electromagnetic energy.

The FAA has always forbidden cell phones and other digital broadcast devices in flight purely for safety reason.  The threat of digital electromagnetic energy is so dangerous to an aircraft that the official Delta Airlines in-flight safety video warns that "some items, such as phones, may not be used in flight at any time."  Ask any stewardess for more information on this deadly topic.

If cell phones are that bad (and they are!), then why on Earth would the FAA let passengers use a laptop wireless network card in-flight?  Counter-cyber-terror experts like myself have known for years that Al Qaeda wants to take down a bunch of aircraft with two clicks of a mouse.  The evidence itself is highly classified, but it's a publicly known fact that Al Qaeda has been training cyber-terrorists in how to take over an aircraft with a laptop wireless network card.

I'm sure every airline will say "we aren't going to tie the aircraft's SCADA network to the Internet."  This is an absurd statement to a retired Air Force man, because all commercial passenger aircraft in the U.S. must communicate digitally with ground control equipment.

Now, thanks to the FAA, we're going to give terrorists the tool they need to log into the aircraft's SCADA network and take over the cockpit.  Why, you ask?  To quote "deep throat" from All The President's Men: "follow the money."

The airlines want to offer in-flight Internet access for $9.95 - $12.95 because it's a cash cow.  The question is, what's more important to you?  Flying safely without fear of cyber-terorism?  Or watching Delta's YouTube video in flight anytime you want just because you're in love with their anorexic spokesmodel?

We need to save the commercial airline industry from its own greed.  I urge everyone to write to the FAA and tell them "don't give cyber-terrorists a wireless laptop connection in-flight."