Aviation security measures and practices

Criminal Justice

After the 911 terrorist attacks on the United States of America, airline security has become one of the most prominent safety issues within the country and also abroad. Indeed, specific organizations and strategies have been implemented in order to ensure the safety of aircraft for passengers and for the country as a whole. One of these is the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA), an organization specifically concerned with airline security issues and the implementation of safety measures (Air Safety Week, 2003). Critics have however suggested that the government has been in denial regarding the danger and shortcomings inherent in safety and security measures for commercial airlines.

According to Air Safety Week (2003), CAPA has implemented a measure by which it grades the governmental effort towards improving aviation security. And even two years after the September 11 attacks, the grades still fall considerably short of the desired result. CAPA thus suggests several areas where safety and security measures for commercial airlines could be improved. The areas of perimeter security and screening practices are specifically targeted for improvement by means of training, advanced equipment, and a higher density of surveillance throughout. Furthermore all employees of the aviation industry are to carry specific identification in order to minimize the risk of infiltration, while crew training is to be improved in order to better deal with possible high-risk situations on an aircraft. It is however interesting that delays and shortcomings still, in the year 2004, appear to litter the airline industry.

According to Pit & Quarry (2004), there were months of delays before the $60 billion for aviation safety were approved by means of legislation. Despite this, "The Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2115) appears to a positive step in the direction of providing a greater amount of airline security for citizens and airline professionals. The Conference Report, according to Pit & Quarry (2004), was already filed during July 2003, and passed at the end of October in the same year. The delays for final approval are blamed on the requirement of privatizing the air traffic control system before the legislation could be approved. The problem was however that funding vital for security and safety improvements were delayed throughout the country, which seemed to take a secondary position to tedious legal processes.

The fact that the legislation has been passed in January 2004, however, means that safety and security measures could finally begin. Infrastructure and modernization of security measures while continuing to provide high quality services to the community is made possible by the new bill, providing $14 billion for airport improvements. The improvement program stretches over four years, and includes guarantees of continued excellence in aviation service and spending efficiency while measures are being implemented. Of particular importance is the fact that cargo pilots will be allowed to carry arms for protecting their aircraft against terrorists (Pit & Quarry, 2004). Furthermore the FAA management structure will be improved and clarified.

These changes all appear very positive, yet it appears that unprecedented delays have occurred despite the fact that improvements were obviously necessary. The September 11 attacks have proved this in unequivocal terms. The above-mentioned bill for example has only been approved in 2004, more than two years after the attacks occurred.

Another interesting feature is the fact that many elements of airline security that could have been addressed without delayed legislation, have not. An example is mentioned by Ahlers (2004). Passengers are checked against lists of suspected terrorists. Even after three years (and almost eight months after the legislation was approved), these lists are still incomplete and truncated. This is one of many shortcomings still evident in aviation security. Obviously this is one of the reasons why transport, and specifically aviation, is such an easy target for terrorists. And this is also the reason why authorities should take care to secure the easiest terrorist access points before working on larger, time-consuming issues.

According to Ahlers (2004), the importance to society of the transport system in the United States necessitates immediate measures to increase security, and one of the ways in which to do this is to provide a complete government terror watch list against which passengers can be screened. The federal government claims that they do not wish to extend a possible warning for terrorists by providing all the names of suspected terrorists. Yet this appears to defeat the purpose of guarding against terrorist attacks on airlines. If a suspected terrorist is not screened, it makes transport systems all the more vulnerable to such attacks.

Other issues that still need to be addressed (Ahlers, 2004), even eight months after the supposed implementation of the new bill, are the shortage of federal air marshals on commercial flights, ineffective checkpoint screening - as mentioned above, and still unfinished reforms proposed as long as six years ago, such as blast resistant cargo containers. Furthermore rescue equipment, such as radio availability and spectrum is also inadequate, as proved after September 11, when rescue efforts were hampered by a lack of radio spectrum.