Airport Security After 9 11

Airport Security

About the Airport

Current Security Arrangements to Counter Terrorist Threats

Aviation Security System: Available Measures

Analysis of the Current Security System at the Airport

Security Measures Required to Strengthen the Airport

About the Airport

In this study we examine the security measures and processes at the Los Angeles International Airport in USA.

This airport that is popularity referred to LAX airport -- the IATA airport code, is the primary airport the serves the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States - the Greater Los Angeles Area.

The airport is also one of the busiest in the U.S. as well as the world. This evident from the amount of cargo and passengers that the airport handles every year. 70,622,212 passengers were handled by the airport in 2014 which is by far the highest in the last 14 years. The second largest was 67.3 million in 2000. LAX was identified to be "the world's busiest origin and destination (O & D) airport" in 2011, meaning it had the most non-connecting passengers (Lawa.org, 2015). IN terms of aircraft movements, it is designated to be the third busiest airport of the world. In terms of passenger and cargo traffic LAX is the world's fifth busiest airport. It served more than 70.6 million passengers and 2 million tons of freight and mail in 2014.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, there has been heightened security at LAX airport. The huge number of passengers and cargo that the airport handles on a daily basis is a very strategic target for terrorists. There have been numerous instances of security threat perceptions and specific information in America and American airports. Among the major airports in the country LAX receives great attention in terms of security.

As recent as in April of this year security at the airport was suddenly beefed up following reports of possible threats of sabotage by ISIS terrorists. Therefore as a strategic target, LAX is very lucrative for the terrorists and hence security arrangements at the airport are given priority (Bleier, 2015).

Current Security Arrangements to Counter Terrorist Threats

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, security at all of the airports in the U.S. has been beefed up. There are intermittent reports of threats and stray incidents of security breaches at the airports. Every incident sheds new light to the security gaps and the need for additional security at the airports. And LAX is no exception.

However since security at airports is often a closely guarded secret of the security agencies, there is little information about the exact kind and measures of security that are in place at LAX airport. The Transportation Security Administration looks over the entire security at the airport. As in most international airports in the U.S., there are layers of security and security checks while entering the airport (Transportation Security Administration, 2014). Outside the airport and within the periphery of the airport area, there are check points for vehicles and cars. Vehicles entering the airport are regularly checked and screened before they can even enter the airport premises.

At the gates of the airport there is a second round of security checking long with a check for a valid ticket. Only passengers with a ticket and a valid boarding pass are allowed beyond passenger screening checkpoints. A third layer of checking is done after the boarding passes are issues and before entering into the waiting lounge at the airport.

Prohibited items like knives, blades, perfumes are not allowed in the hand baggage. Electronic items like laptops and other devices need to be powered up at the final security check point inside the airport. A full body check with metal detectors is done there. The hand baggage and other luggage go through scanning machines to identify any suspicious items. All checked luggage is screened at the airport by explosive detection equipment (Los-angeles-lax.worldairportguides.com, 2015).

Apart from these sniffer dogs are roam around the airport and are put into service if anything is found to be suspicious. A large number of security cameras virtually have access to every corner of the airport and the feed is continuously monitored. Additional security personnel and quick response teams trained to counter any terrorist threats at the airport are kept on standby.

The airport security system also does not permit parking of vehicles at curbside and any unattended vehicles are towed away. This is done to prevent anyone trying to set off a bomb hidden in a vehicle.

Aviation Security System: Available Measures

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA, P.L. 107- 71)that stressed and focused on the requirement of sweeping changes to the security of passenger airline operations and concerned security and screening processes was the outcome of the September 11, 2001, attacks, in the U.S. This act has changed the way security measures are taken at the airport as well as during flights in the aviation industry in the U.S. (Elias, 2009).

Till the terrorist attacks of 9/11, in the U.S. the importance of strategic aviation security was recognized but it was not a priority. Focus towards airport and aviation security shifted, following the 9/11 Commission Report which concluded that the TSA had not managed to develop mode specific plans and integrated strategy for security in the transportation sector.

The documents that detail the proposed security measures at the airports and aviation security are deemed to be security sensitive and thus limit public discourse of the same. The security at the airports and aviation is however known to have been prepared using a risk-based methodology to complement the overarching National Infrastructure Protection Plan (Dhs.gov, 2015). Aviation security fall sunder the ambit of the department of homeland security and is formulated and implemented by TSA. This security plan is intended to deter and prevent terrorist attacks against aviation. The plan also outlines the steps and measures that need to be taken to mitigate damage and expedite recovery in order to minimize the impact of a terrorist attack to the aviation system (Elias, 2009).

The areas of specific focus in the plan include in total the various aspects of operational security, surveillance and intelligence, threat response, system recovery, and coordination and is sought to be completed by the engagement of domestic and international partners who are designated to carry out specific actions set and play a supporting role in the overall plans.

Aviation security measures in the U.S. are considered to be among the best in the world. Since the emergence of the terrorist threat to aviation, the TSA and DHS have made sweeping changes and introduced stricter screening at the airports in the U.S. The technology that is used for screening has also been upgraded (Dhs.gov, 2015).

At present the procedures, technologies and the requirements that the TSA currently utilizes for aviation security are as below:

Removal of shoes when passing through security checkpoints -- to resist attempts by terrorists to blow up flights with explosives hidden in the soles of shoes as was attempted by an Al Qaeda operative in 2001.

No liquids, gels and certain food items weighing more than 3 ounces can be carried onto a commercial flight. This security measure was implemented in August 2006 after it was unearthed in Britain that terrorists had tried to smuggle liquid explosives onto aircraft.

It is mandatory to remove of laptops, video cameras and other large electronics in hand bags for separate x-ray screening. This step was taken as standard security measures against known terrorist plots and was implemented in 2007.

Primary and secondary passenger screening is done by Advance Imaging Technology (AIT) at the airports. This was put into effect after the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in 2010 and is viewed as an effective screening process of personnel and baggage (www.ustravel.org, 2011).

Airport security now use enhanced passenger pat-downs for secondary and random screening of passengers to check and stop any terrorist attempt to sabotage.

The TSA implemented the Secure Flight Program where the names of airline passenger are matched against government watch lists. This security measure was implemented in the U.S. in2009 and completely enforced by November 2010 (www.ustravel.org, 2011).

Analysis of the Current Security System at the Airport

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks where commercial flights were hijacked b terrorists and subsequent foiled attempts to blow up flights within the U.S., security at airports is a big issue in the aviation industry. LAX being one of the busiest airports of the U.S. serving more than 70.6 million passengers a year, is almost at the center of airport security measures.

Since 2004 following the 9/11 commission report, the TSA and the DHS had drawn up a host of security measures both outside and within the airport terminal to prevent possible terrorist and other threats. However slackness in the security at the LAX airport became evident in November of 2013, when a young man simply trotted inside the airport building with a handgun in his hand, walked over to terminal 3 of the airport and killed two people and wounded several others before a security guard fatally shot him.

This exposed a serious lapse in the security system and the set up at the airport. This demonstrated that the LAX airport was vulnerable to attacks that might appear costly and difficult to defend against.

The incident exposed the lacunae within the security system and showed that the lobbies, ticketing counters, baggage claim areas and sidewalks of the nine terminals at the airport were easily accessible to attackers. Such attackers -- even terrorists could just walk past security armed with a gun or carrying a bomb into the airport's public areas.

This is one of the short comings of the security system at LAX airport.

As a norm, the TSA officials at the checkpoints are not armed while those policemen who are armed roam around the airport in designated areas. Hence it could take time for them to respond and instantly tackle an emergency situation like the one that happened in November 2013 at the airport. The lack of adequate armed security personnel trained to tackle these types of emergencies is evident in the security system at LAX.

The rule to power up electronic devices including mobile phones during security checks needs to be adequately enforced, according to counter terrorism experts, terrorists of Al Qaida have managed to develop a technique for hiding explosives that could evade existing metal detectors, body scanners and pat-downs. Therefore identifying and securing such explosives hidden inside electronic gadgets can only be done by powering up the device. In the present context of the ISIS treat to the U.S., this becomes more important as ISIS ad Al Qaida have links between them.