wk 4 respond discussion

The general aviation industry faces many threats every year, one being plane hijacking/terrorism. "Between May 1961 and the end of 1972, there were 159 hijackings" (Hay, 2019). The United States has since added a ton of security measures to prevent hijackings. In 1970, New Orleans International Airport became the first airport to use magnetometers (metal detectors) to detect weapons or anything metal. In 1973, the FAA stated that everyone had to pass through metal detectors and get their bags searched. As a result of adding these, hijackings have significantly reduced but have not been eliminated. On 9/11, four aircraft were hijacked, despite all the security measures passengers had to go through. I do not know why, but box cutters were allowed on some aircraft back then—the hijackers on 9/11 used box cutters and sharp knives that were easily concealed. Of course, after 9/11, security has dramatically improved. Metal detectors are much stronger now and can detect even the tiniest metal objects. It is also interesting to note that after 9/11, the Federal Air Marshall program pushed for a massive expansion before they only had 33 air marshals working full time. Some people could argue that having a military-style security presence at airports could help. Every year TSA reports how many guns they found at their security checkpoints, so whatever they are doing might be working, but how many box cutters did they take away? In my opinion, TSA should make even stronger machines, and maybe ad facial recognition as I do not think there is any out there today. As a result, airport security has greatly improved over the years, but there is room for more improvements.

Discussion #2

An emerging threat that aviation security faces is terrorism, specifically explosive devices brought onboard through carry-on and checked baggage. Many attempts have been made to board aircraft with improvised explosive devices (IED’s). In 2001 there was the shoe bomb attempt, in 2006 there was the transatlantic plot, and in 2009 there was the underwear bomb attempt to just name a few. As technology advances the devices in use become harder to detect. The Transportation Security Agency has placed many layers of security to mitigate the threat, starting with passenger screening to identify if there are any suspicious individuals whose bags should be monitored more closely before traveling. A law that was put into place to add another layer to security is that all commercial airports perform 100% screening on checked baggage using explosive detection systems (EDS), explosive trace detection systems (ETD), or alternative technologies (Fang, 2007). Bomb detecting canine units and advanced imagining technology is also being used to detect and explosive devices. All of these efforts have had great effectiveness in detecting and preventing any security breach. The biggest issue that TSA is faced with now is not the type of assets but the quantity of them. After all, passenger transportation is still a business looking to make money and, the growth of passengers and the need for a positive experience might interfere with the security checkpoints negatively (Willemsen & Cadee, 2018). There are some security checks that take longer but are more effective but at time the quicker option will be the route taken in order to not inconvenience the paying customer any further. My recommendation would be to invest more money into safety and ensure that every airport be equipped with the newest advanced imaging systems.

References:

Feng, Q. (2007). On Determining Specifications and Selections of Alternative Technologies

for Airport Checked‐Baggage Security Screening. Risk Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2007.00966.x