2015+Travel+Danger

=Should the U.S. Ban Americans and American Airlines from Traveling to Danger Areas?=

On October 31st, a Russian Metrojet airliner crashed with 224 passengers and crew onboard. There were no survivors. This flight left Sharm el Sheikh, a major tourist resort area on the Red Sea in Egypt bound for St. Petersburg, Russia. It is now believed that a bomb placed on board in the luggage bay by someone working at the airport with access to the plane exploded at 31,000 feet and broke up the plane. ISIS claimed responsibility. Recently, Russia had begun to intervene militarily in Syria- both in defense of the Syrian government of Bashir Al Assad and against ISIS rebels. Accordingly, Russian citizens were targeted- as American and "Western" citizens have been targeted since 9/11. While the investigation goes on, tourists in Sharm el Sheikh have been gradually brought home and new flights to the resort have been cancelled. Egypt depends heavily on its tourist industry and has been struggling since the Arab Spring uprisings 3 years ago. Any long term ban on travel to Egypt could have a devastating impact on Egypt's economy.

The U.S. State Department regularly issues warnings to American travelers when there are issues that might make travel to a given country unsafe. Here is the link to that continually updated list:

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings.html

Should the U.S. add Egypt to the Travel Advisory Warning list? Should the U.S. ban travel to Egypt altogether for American tourists (as opposed to those traveling on official business for work, school or as a representative of the U.S. government.)? What have you learned in your travels about traveling safely? If the U.S. were to ban travel to Egypt as a result of this incident, can you think of any dangers in the U.S. that might cause other countries to ban travel- or issue safety warnings to their citizens about travel to the United States?

This discussion will run until Sunday, November 15th.