Impact Of 9/11 On Airport Security

The events of 9/11 resulted in major changes to the way the United States conducts Airport Security. Two months after the attacks, Congress passed Aviation and Transportation Security Act. This act was the beginning of the United States government getting directly involved in airport security. Prior to 9/11, all airport security was directly handled by each airport. Airports were secured by privately owned security companies.

The most common security upgrade, which everyone must go through, is the removal of footwear and the banning of all liquids onto the plane through passengers carry on bags. Only passengers who had their tickets present were allowed to enter the airport security area. Passengers would then go through an array of new procedures,

A system designed by the TSA to have known travelers expedited because of their compliance with background checks. The people responsible for providing this would be the custom and border protection officers. A system was developed known as Global Entry Fast Track Screening. This was a way to properly screen passengers without violating their privacy. PRS check online has about 25 million people enrolled and they use their smartphone app. The events of 9/11 also propelled the United States government to overhaul the airport screener employees. Before 9/11, there were fewer than 20 thousand airport screeners. Most of these people were not properly trained, being poorly paid workers that were hired by the airlines. These people were blamed by many for ignorance in letting the hijackers board the plane with box-cutters. One of the first government responses to 9/11 was to put the hiring of screeners in charge of the government.

Today, the airlines have about 42,000 screeners. These screeners are federal workers belonging to a union. Still, many secretive tests performed by the government found these employees are missing potential harmful items that can be taken onto

This now occurs because a man in 2002 boarded an airplane with a bomb inside his shoe. Now, with the improved security innovations, this is less likely to happen.

Almost all airports used canines to sniff luggage for possible explosives before 9/11. After this tragic event, stricter government policies require bomb sniffer dogs at all airports. In 1992, a sniffer dog discovered a bomb on a flight from New York to Los Angeles at JFK airport.

There have been many changes in airline security following the events of 9/11. From improved secure cockpits, new screening machines, better screeners, and now new protocols. This will hopefully prevent another breach at our airports.

If airport personnel had been better trained and more diligent about the possibility of such a thing happening like 9/11 it could have been avoided. The new personnel and equipment along with the United States government in control of the airports is a new system that will now lessen the chance of another