At the airport - like a doctor, on an airplane - like in a prison: the 9/11 attacks revolutionized air travel

Today, September 11, is the 20th anniversary of the tragedy. The attacks have not only become part of US history forever - they have overhauled airport security regulations around the world. What has changed in 20 years and what innovations to expect yet, the publication said "Voice of America".

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The events of September 11, 2001, recalls Thomas Carter - then he saw with his own eyes how the planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

“When you see all these events, you realize that from now on everything will be different,” Carter said.

Today he is the director of security for the US federal agency that controls the country's airports. Says that airport security has relied more and more on technology in recent years.

"Technologies - it is a key aspect and primary tool of our counterterrorism mission,” explains Carter.

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These technologies include various scanners that are used to analyze a suspicious item in a bag, and light waves that test liquids for explosives. And at passport control there are the latest facial recognition technologies that can quickly confirm a person’s identity.

There is also a machine that scans the contours of the body using radio waves that pass through clothing in search of something unusual, such as explosives or bomb-making devices. She is considered one of the main checkpoints.

"Terrorists usually attach explosives directly to themselves, and this machine allows us to detect such things," Carter explains.

Some of the airport security technologies are borrowed from medicine. Computed tomography is based on magnetic resonance imaging.

“This allows inspectors to get high-quality images of the luggage,” says Carter.

He does not rule out that in the future, technologies will reach such a level that passengers will be able to scan themselves at checkpoints with extensive use of biometrics.

“This includes facial recognition, retinal scanning or fingerprint scanning,” says the security director.

The 20th anniversary of the tragedy, he said, will become not only a day of remembrance, but also plans for the future to maintain flight safety.

Advanced technology, coupled with the patience of passengers, can help you complete your air travel safety mission.

What changed

Checkpoints with TSA (Transportation Security Administration) employees, designed to prevent another attack, have changed in the two decades since 11/XNUMX, and passengers have become accustomed to such routine activities as taking off their shoes and banning liquids. Popular Science.

But some of the most exciting airline security innovations that have emerged from the 11/20 tragedy remain invisible to passengers. These include a radical shift in philosophy about how the flight crew will deal with the hijacking, as well as the physical manifestation of this shift in the form of reinforced cockpit doors. Other changes are less straightforward and more controversial. This is how airline security has actually changed since XNUMX years ago.

Flight crew attitude change

Experts point to a dramatic change in how pilots respond to hijacking today. Before 11/9, the standard was to cooperate to some extent. For example, take the hijackers wherever they want to in order to ensure the safety of passengers. But in the aftermath of the 11/XNUMX attacks, keeping potential terrorists out of the cockpit at all costs has become a new priority.

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11/XNUMX taught pilots that following the rules could actually make the situation exponentially deadlier.

Reinforced cab doors is a physical example of this new philosophy. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) publicly urged airlines to install them in January 2002. The barriers are intended to protect the flight deck "from intrusion and fire from small arms or fragmentation devices such as grenades." The FAA directive, among other things, directed airlines to improve door locks “so that they can only be unlocked from the cockpit.”

Passenger attitude and cooperation

Like flight crew members, passengers also have a different mindset. “We know that on September 11, the passengers on the last flight realized what was happening and resisted,” the expert says. “This reflects the attitude that prevails today.” In a modern hijacking, he said, the instigator would face a real risk of physical violence from “terrified passengers.”

One trend that has improved significantly since 11/11 (which people don't see at all) is inter-agency collaboration. Since XNUMX/XNUMX, there has been unprecedented cooperation between intelligence services and law enforcement agencies around the world.

Passenger behavior and equipment

The most noticeable level of aviation security for passengers, of course, is associated with people and vehicles at checkpoints managed by TSA.

The Transportation Security Administration has done a good job of implementing a program called Secure Flight, says Tina Vaughn Sherman, director of Homeland Security and Justice at the GAO Government Accounts Chamber (Accounts Chamber); this includes obtaining passenger information from airlines and matching it to a potential terrorist watchlist.

But there are also weaknesses, which include the actual equipment TSA uses to inspect passengers, bags and cargo. The GAO cares about maintaining this technology: if it has worked well over the years since its early days, has it been tested to make sure it is still sensitive to the right levels? Sherman says that, for example, equipment designed to detect explosives, "TSA has not really tested" if the devices are working with the correct sensitivity. She refers to "the deterioration of the performance of these technologies."

There's also the bizarre and problematic field of behavior analysis - the idea of ​​looking at how someone acts to try to guess whether they pose a threat. The two examples of behavioral indicators that GAO can provide are odd. According to the report, the TSA is looking at "swallowing pattern and degree of eye opening."

Sherman says that while TSA used to have officers whose main task was to monitor passenger behavior, these specific positions no longer exist. For now, she said, they were simply training rank-and-file transport security officers to recognize behavior.

Aviation security now plays a different role

As a result, the larger idea reflects how the country now sees the role of aviation security.

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“The federal government took it upon itself and obliged to take a number of additional measures,” says the expert. “But I think beyond the regulatory changes that happened after 11/XNUMX, it was really a shift in attitude that aviation security was a component of national security.”

Permission to shoot down captured aircraft

The current US President George W. Bush in 2001 allowed the air defense forces to shoot down captured passenger aircraft, if necessary, without reporting to him, writes "Ukrainian Truth".

The circumstances stipulated by this order include the location of the hijacked liner in the vicinity of important facilities.

From now on, the commander of the air defense of the continental United States and the lieutenant general in charge of air defense forces in Alaska, Hawaii and other Pacific territories have the right to order the destruction of a civil aircraft.

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