Airline terrorism: security threats and prevention strategies

Airline Terrorism

As the name implies, terrorism is an attempt to provoke fear and intimidation. Therefore, terrorist acts are intended to attract wide publicity and provoke public shock, outrage, and/or fear. The intent may be to provoke disproportionate reactions from governments, and they are intended to achieve political or religious goals, not personal gain.

Many definitions of terrorism exist, produced by the politicians, media, academics, think tanks, and of course by government. Law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies have formulated most of these official definitions. Official definitions have the most impact, because they determine anti-terrorism policy. Most of them outline primary criteria: the target, objective, motive, perpetrator, and legitimacy or legality of the act.

It is commonly held that the distinctive nature of terrorism lies in its deliberate and specific selection of civilians as targets. Furthermore, an act is more likely to be considered terrorism if it targets a general populace rather than if it purposefully targets a specific individual or group. This criterion excludes conventional warfare in accordance with the laws of war, any attacks on military targets (such as the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole), guerrilla warfare and revolution when limited to military targets, and assassination of a head of state or other leader of comparable stature (such as Martin Luther King, Jr.). This criterion may also be held to exclude actions where the attackers make at least some attempt to reduce civilian casualties. For example, the Zionist organization Irgun preceded many, though not all, of its attacks (notably the 1946 King David Hotel bombing) with warnings to the press, the target, or the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine.

Nevertheless, they were considered to be terrorists by the British. By contrast, groups who use suicide-bombing attacks against civilians (such as Hamas, al-Qaida and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades) rely on the element of surprise in order to maximize casualties, and therefore never issue warnings. Coercion is not relevant to the definition, as the terrorists do not want the government to do anything specific, they want it to disappear. "The European Union includes the aim of "destabilizing or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country" in its 2004 definition of terrorism.

No definition of terrorism has been accepted as authoritative by the United Nations, however, the "academic consensus definition," written by terrorism expert A.P. Schmid and widely used by social scientists, defines terrorism as follows:

Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby - in contrast to assassination - the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen randomly (targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative or symbolic targets) from a target population, and serve as message generators. Threat- and violence-based communication processes between terrorist (organization), (imperiled) victims, and main targets are used to manipulate the main target (audience(s)), turning it into a target of terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention, depending on whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought.

Schmid has also proposed a short legal definition of terrorism to the UN, namely that an act of terrorism should be defined as "the peacetime equivalent of a war crime."

9/11 was a series of coordinated attacks carried out in the United States (U.S.) on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. According to the official 9/11 Commission Report, nineteen men affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing one into each of the two tallest towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City, causing both towers to collapse. The third aircraft crashed into the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters, the Pentagon, in Arlington County, Virginia, and the fourth plane crashed into a rural field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania near Shanksville, apparently following passenger resistance. The attacks were the most lethal terrorist acts ever carried out in the United States. The September 11th attacks are arguably the most significant events to have occurred so far in the 21st century in terms of the profound economic, social, cultural, and military effects that followed in the United States and many parts of the world.

With jet fuel capacities of nearly 24,000 gallons, the aircraft were turned into flying incendiary bombs. American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north side of the north tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 8:46:40 AM local time. At 9:03:11 AM local time, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the south tower, covered live on TV. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 AM local time. The fourth hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in a field near Shanksville and Stonycreek Township in Somerset County, Pennsylvania at 10:03:11 AM local time, with parts and debris found up to eight miles away. The crash in Pennsylvania is believed to have resulted from the hijackers either deliberately crashing the aircraft or losing control of it as they fought with the passengers. No one in any of the hijacked aircraft survived.

The fatalities were in the thousands: 265 on the planes; 2,595, including 343 firemen and 60 New York City and Port Authority police officers, in the WTC; and 125 at the Pentagon. At least 2,985 people were killed in total. In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, 25 buildings were destroyed or badly damaged, including five other buildings at the WTC site and four subway stations. Communications equipment such as broadcast radio, television and two-way radio antenna towers were damaged beyond repair. In Arlington, a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.

A total of 19 hijackers were later identified, four on United 93 and five each on the other three flights, though confusion remains over their exact names and photographs, with some of those first identified still alive in Saudi Arabia.

The hijackers reportedly took control of the aircraft by using box cutter knives to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger. On American 77, one of the passengers reported that the hijackers used Leatherman utility knives.

The first public response from Osama bin Laden was read on September 16, 2001. He stated, "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation," which was broadcast by Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite channel.

This denial was broadcast on U.S. news networks and worldwide. According to American military sources, in November 2001 U.S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, which showed Osama bin Laden talking to Khaled al-Harbi. In the tape, Osama seems to admit planning the attacks, though some dispute the translation provided. The tape was broadcast on various news networks in December 2001. In a 2004 video bin Laden appears to take full responsibility for the September 11th attacks.

The attacks had significant economic repercussions for the United States and world markets, and in the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the United States and other countries around the world were placed on a high state of alert against potential follow-up attacks. North American air space was closed for several days after the attacks and air travel decreased significantly upon it's reopening. Civilian air travel across the U.S. And Canada was - for the first time ever, almost completely suspended for three days, with numerous locations and events affected by closures, postponements, cancellations, and evacuations. As of 2005, the U.S. airline industry has not fully recovered, and only a handful of American airline corporations are performing well.

Contributing to the problems of the airline industry were a series of price wars and the rising cost of fuel. The price of light, sweet crude oil on NYMEX has been above $50 a barrel since March 5, 2005. After prices retreated for several months during the winter of 2004/2005 they rose to new highs in March and closed at a then new peak of $57.27 a barrel at the beginning of April 2005. On March 16, 2005, the price surpassed the October 2004 high of $55.17, closing at $56.46. On March 18th, the price rose to $57.60. Oil prices jumped to almost $52 a barrel May 27th on expectations of high U.S. gasoline demand over the Memorial Day holiday and amid reports Saudi Arabia's King Fahd had fallen ill. "Any uncertainty in the Kingdom might cause prices to move higher,' said Mike Fitzpatrick, vice president for energy risk management at Fimat USA. 'We'll have to see how much movement there is if and when the King actually dies'"

The attacks on September 11, 2001,defined the first term of President George W. Bush, and led to what has been called the War on Terror, or war against terrorism. The U.S. government increased military operations, economic measures and political pressure on groups it accused of being terrorists, as well as on governments and countries accused of sheltering them. October 2001 saw the first military action initiated by the U.S. under this policy, when Afghanistan was invaded. Prior to the invasion, the Taliban had refused to hand over bin Laden without being shown evidence of his connection to the attacks. While the primary objective of capturing bin Laden failed, the invasion did succeed in uprooting the Taliban from power, enabling the implementation of a government somewhat more cooperative and supportive in the search for bin Laden and the general "War on Terror."

Air India Flight 182 was a Boeing 747 that exploded on June 23, 1985 while at an altitude of 31,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland. All 329 on board were killed, of whom 82 were children, and 280 were Canadian citizens. The explosion caused by a bomb placed in checked baggage, was the single largest terrorist attack before those of September 11, 2001, and the largest mass murder in Canadian history. It occurred within an hour of the Narita Airport Bombing. The Air India B747-237B "Emperor Kanishka" was flying from Montreal-Mirabel International Airport to Bombay, via London Heathrow Airport, Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi and Sahar International Airport (now Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport).

The Canadian government's trial of those accused of the bombing, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, is known as the Air India Trial. The investigation and prosecution took almost twenty years and was the costliest in Canadian history at nearly CAD $130 million. On March 16, 2005, the accused were found not guilty by Justice Ian Josephson in British Columbia and were released. In delivering the verdict, Justice Josephson said:

I began by describing the horrific nature of these cruel acts of terrorism, acts which cry out for justice. Justice is not achieved, however, if persons are convicted on anything less than the requisite standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Despite what appear to have been the best and most earnest of efforts by the police and the Crown, the evidence has fallen markedly short of that standard.

The only person convicted of any involvement in the bombing was Inderjit Singh Reyat. On February 10, 2003 Reyat pled guilty to constructing the bomb used on Flight 182 and received a ten-year sentence.

Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up as it flew over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988, when 12-16 oz of plastic explosive was detonated in its forward cargo hold, triggering a sequence of events that led to the rapid destruction of the aircraft. High winds of 100 knots scattered passengers and debris along an 88-mile corridor over an area of 845 square miles. Investigators believe that within three seconds of the explosion, the cockpit, fuselage, and number three engine were falling separately. The fuselage continued moving forward and down until it reached 19,000 ft, at which point its dive became almost vertical.

Two hundred and seventy people from twenty-one countries died, including eleven people on the ground. After a three-year joint investigation by the Scottish Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, during which 15,000 witness statements were taken, indictments for murder were issued on November 13, 1991, against Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA), and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, the LAA station manager in Luqa airport, Malta.

United Nations sanctions against Libya and protracted negotiations with the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi secured the handover of the accused on April 5, 1999 to Scottish police in the Netherlands, for trial before three judges without a jury. The Netherlands was chosen as a neutral venue, a stipulation of Gaddafi's. The British government also had to agree that the accused would not be interviewed by the police, and that no one else in Libya would be sought in connection with the bombing. The two accused arrived in the Netherlands on April 5, 1999, and the trial opened on May 3, 2000, 11 years, four months and 13 days after the bombing. On January 31, 2001, Megrahi was convicted of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges, and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Fhimah was acquitted. Megrahi's appeal against his conviction was refused on March 14, 2002, and a further appeal to the European Court of Human Rights was declared inadmissible in July 2003. He is serving his sentence in Greenock prison near Glasgow, where he continues to protest his innocence.

On August 15, 2003, Libya formally accepted responsibility for the bombing, although the statement lacked an expression of remorse for the lives lost. The Libyan government paid each family $8 million, and on September 12, 2003, the UN removed the sanctions. An extra $2 million would have gone to each family had the U.S. State Department removed Libya from its list of states regarded as supporting international terrorism, but as this did not happen by the deadline, the Libyan Central Bank withdrew half a billion dollars in April 2005 from the escrow account in Switzerland into which the compensation for the victims had been paid.

Airport security refers to the techniques and methods used in protecting airports from crime and terrorism. Most large airports have their own police force backed up by security guards. In some countries and during wars, paramilitary forces or even soldiers protect airports from threats. Large numbers of people pass through an airport every day, and such a large gathering of persons presents in itself a natural target for terrorism due to the number of people crowded into a small area. Past tragedies have resulted from travelers being allowed to carry weapons aboard aircraft so that they can hijack the plane. Therefore, travelers' baggage must be quickly but efficiently screened to prevent the carrying of bombs aboard an aircraft. X-ray machines are often used to speed this process.

The Federal Aviation Regulations, or FARs, are rules prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration governing all aviation activities in the United States. The FARs are part of the Code of Federal Regulations. A wide variety of activities are regulated, such as airplane design, typical airline flights, pilot training activities, hot-air ballooning and even model rocket launches. The rules are designed to promote safe aviation, protect pilots, passengers and the general public from unnecessary risk. They are also intended to protect the national security of the United States, especially in light of the September 11th attacks. There has been some criticism of the FARs as contributing to the poor quality of airline security.

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to have the arguments in a case which challenges federal aviation requirements to be kept secret in the interests of security. The case brought by privacy advocate John Gilmore challenges the requirement to show a form of identification before boarding an aircraft. Gilmore claims that the ID law is vague, ineffective and violates his constitutional rights. Gilmore also claims that the government has never revealed the regulations behind the law, leaving the public uninformed. A spokesperson for Gilmore said that the Bush administration's "use of a secret law is more dangerous to the security of the nation than any external threat," reports The Associated Press.

Prior to the 1970s American airports had no security arrangements to prevent hijacking. Security measures were introduced following several high-profile hijackings starting in the late 1960s, and sky marshals were introduced in 1970, but they were insufficient in numbers to protect every flight, and hijackings continued to take place. In late 1972, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) demanded that all airlines begin searching passengers and their carry-on baggage by January 5, 1973. In September 1970, the Popular Front for the Liberation (PFLP) attempted the simultaneous hijacking of four airliners, of which two were American. Three of them were eventually destroyed on the ground in Jordan and Egypt. In response, King Hussein of Jordan formed a military government on September 16, 1970, and began shelling Palestinian guerrilla positions, expelling the PLO from Jordan, in what became known as Black September. This, in turn, gave rise to the formation of a new Palestinian organization, comprised of men associated with al-Fatah and the PFLP. This group called itself Black September.

The September 11th attack prompted even tougher regulations, such as prohibiting the carrying of certain items aboard aircraft by passengers and requiring all passengers to prove their identity, though many 9/11 hijackers had simply used false identification.

Airport security in the United States is now provided by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the Department of Homeland Security. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act required that from November 19, 2002 all passenger screening must be conducted by Federal employees. Prior to that date, passenger screening was provided by security guard companies, however, and it is thought that private security companies in America were not able to provide the same service level as U.S. Federal employees. It was not uncommon for the lowest-paid employee in the airport to be a security guard.

As of March 2004 in the United States, a controversial plan called the Computer-Assisted Airline Passenger Screening System or CAPPS II, was promoted by the TSA. Some of those requirements for the successor to CAPPS I Congress presented to the TSA were that the government, not the airlines, would control and administer the system, every ticketed passenger would be screened, for instance not just those who check bags, and every airline and every airport would be covered by the system. CAPPS II was a proposal for a new CAPPS system, designed by the Office of National Risk Assessment (ONRA), a subsidiary office of the TSA, with the contracted assistance of Lockheed Martin. Like its predecessor, the CAPPS II proposal would rely on the Passenger Name Record (PNR) to uniquely identify people attempting to board aircraft. It would expand the PNR field to include a few extra fields, like a full street address, date of birth, and a home telephone number. The program forces the booking agent or airline to record certain identifying information: full name, address, etc., at the time a ticket is purchased. The data goes from there to the TSA, which forwards it to a contractor for verification. This information is used to check against some data store (i.e., a TSA no-fly list, the FBI ten most wanted fugitive list, etc.) and assign a terrorism "risk score" to that person. Government officials then would run computer programs that supposedly generates an accurate risk assessment, allowing security to focus their time on high-risk individuals. High-risk scores require the airline to subject the person to extended baggage and/or personal screening, and to contact law enforcement if necessary. Law enforcement would be contacted in the event that the person is present on a terrorist or most-wanted list, or has an outstanding Federal or state arrest warrants for violent crime. Otherwise, the software would calculate the "risk score" and then print a code on the boarding pass indicating the appropriate "screening level" for that person: green (no threat) indicates no additional screening, yellow (unknown or possible threat) indicates additional screening, and red (high risk) indicates no boarding and deferral to law enforcement.