Airport Security After 9/11

Airport Security
Airport Security has been around since the first passenger and cargo flights took off. It was established to keep travelers safe but most people think of it as inefficient and ineffective and they are not necessarily wrong. Security has gone through drastic changes over the past years due to 9/11. The 9/11 terrorist attack was a major attack in 2001 directed towards the United States, carried out by a radical Islamic group. During the attack, four planes were hijacked and crashed leading to thousands of deaths. Before the terrorist attacks of 9/11, airlines were not seen as a major target of terrorism; only after the attacks did airlines become a major target of terrorist groups around the world. The terrorist attack proved

is constantly upgrading and changing airport security, our security is falling behind those of Europe and Asia. “TSA still falls short in 7 of 24, or almost one-third, of critical performance benchmarks set for the agency”(Air security). TSA’s major issues include, screening failures, questionable rules, unsecure cockpits, and thin security forces. During screening, TSA agents consistently fail to identify weapons/explosives during undercover tests. Passenger screenings miss on average, 20% of all weapons carried on by passengers, pilots, flight attendants; that number is considerably too large. Another problem TSA has is their rules with what can be brought on an airplane. Items like liquid, gels, scissors, bats, etc are easily passed through security because they are seen as everyday items, but in reality, they can be used as weapons. TSA constantly changes the rules on whether items like that can be brought aboard an airplane which leads to confusion among the security crew. After 2002 when the FFA required reinforced doors to be replace, problems with the new doors started to come up. Doors began to pop open mid flight and flight attendants began breaking them (despite being reinforced) which causes major security problems. If the cockpit door is broken mid flight, the pilot had no defense during a mid flight hijacking. Air marshals would be their only hope if an attack were to happen, but only about 5-10% of flights have them. As of now the air marshal program is significantly understaffed leaving more and more planes vulnerable to attack. TSA has to really step up their game before another attack like 9/11 happens on US