Some inconsiderate, deranged ass-hole decided to try to murder hundreds of people in America by blowing up a plane on Christmas day. Being a failure at life, he couldn’t even manage that properly (everybody is fine), thanks in part to some heroic actions from other passengers.

As a side effect of his misplaced anger, or more notably his ability to smuggle stuff past airport security, the US Transport Security Administration (TSA) has been forced to act. They are now possibly considering banning all electronic devices on flights.

As soon as the incident occurred, airport security was turned up to 11 with many passengers talking about being patted down and full bag searches not just at security, but also actually at the boarding gates. On international flights (like the one I’ll be taking from the UK to the US in a few weeks) passengers aren’t allowed to get up, or have any personal items on their lap in the final hour of the flight.

More annoying still, TechCrunch is reporting on a possible ban on all electronic devices for the entirety of the flight. That eight hour transatlantic flight just got a whole lot longer without my DS or iPod.

These measures are an understandable knee-jerk reaction to a failing on the part of airport security. Whilst the details and motivation of what happened remain unclear, airports are obviously going to be doing everything in their power to stop any repeat attacks, and I support that. Flying scares me at the best of times, right now I’m about as comfortable with the thought of it as I was after I watched a bunch of YouTube clips of plane test crashes (the only YouTube clips cooler are of planes landing in heavy cross winds, and train snow-ploughs).

However, is it really worth protecting my safety at the cost of  me not being able to play Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs and instead enduring the terrible in-flight bejewelled clones? Gaming is serious! Hopefully this is all simply short-term solutions. My DS, and especially my iPod, have made my recent air travel (more transatlantic flights than I care to carbon count) at least somewhat bearable. Taking that away for what is honestly, negligible improvements in safety, doesn’t seem worth it to me.

On the topic of flights; if you ever put your seat back and there is a person behind you on the plane, you deserve to be punched really hard in the face and should be banned from life. Me, bitter? Not at all. I enjoy seven hours of not having room for my food, laptop or book, not being able to see the in-seat screen and being forced to watch your scalp from an unavoidably small distance. Jerk.

Update: There’s been no announcement about any further restrictions being placed on people. As such, you can probably assume that for all but the final hour of the flight, you can use your electronics. Yey?