Aviation Security Keeping Skies Safe

Aviation Security

Keeping Skies Safe in a Post 911 World:

Aviation Security and Its Impact on Airports

United States citizens will always remember the September 11 attacks with regret, grief, and awe at the sheer power of hate. Yet some of these citizens will remember these attacks as offering an opportunity to learn. This latter group is that which protects the country from future attacks, and it can include members of the secret service, governmental agents at the highest ranks, but also members of airport security services, and those belonging to the TSA. All these individuals work daily in order to ensure that the country is safe, and especially in a large place such as an airport, where hundreds of thousands, if not millions, flow through security checkpoints daily. Airport personnel thus work firsthand with potential perpetrators, as well as ensure that they will be stopped from committing hateful, atrocious crimes. Yet it is the entire security personnel that ensure smooth functioning not just in airports, but also at various checkpoints across the country. These individuals should be commended for the work they do in preventing another 9-11 from happening.

Introduction

One of the best ways through which to ensure that no repetition of the terrorist attacks will ever take place on American soil is to ensure that aviation security is equipped with the best means of communication, tracking and checking. Aviation security is therefore the most important facet of ensuring nationwide security and countless examination have been conducted in order to see how best to make it more effective and more efficient. This paper will aim to analyze both successes and failures of this field, as well as examine how aviation security has impacted airports, including airport personnel and passengers, and whether this will change in the future, given the fact that many airports are acquiring more efficient technology that allows for faster security checks.

Civil Aviation Security

Civil aviation security, which is that security present in airports or in and around airplanes, is defined by its scope to prevent any kind of criminal activity from occurring on aircraft or in airports. Criminal activity with relation to civil aviation security is further defined as that activity inclusive of acts such as "hijacking or air piracy, damaging or destroying aircraft and nearby areas with bombs, and assaulting passengers and aviation employees."

Furthermore, it must be noted that criminal activity in airports can be curbed by civil aviation security but if it is not, it can have very disastrous consequences and will be prosecuted, without a doubt, to the fullest extent.

Though 9/11 is the foremost example in everybody's mind with relation tot the topic, there have been other hijackings and criminal undergoings in the history of civil aviation that certainly match up to this disaster. In the past, aviation security was a minor concern, because few could truly hurt the rigid encasing of an airplane. Yet as technology developed, so did bombs, and they became more effective, and smaller. Soon, bombs could go 'under the radar,' with harmful consequences. Civil aviation accidents include, for instance, a 1938 Peruvian airline hijacking or an explosive accident on an American airline in 1955.

Though these accidents took very few lives, the concern raised by these was building momentum and soon, aviation security was on the list of priorities for many world governments and their airports.

General Airport Security Examination

Aviation security is no doubt the top priority of the United States today, after a lull in the 1990's and the beginning of the 2000's. Yet increased airport security has a harmful effect on the efficiency of airports, making them overcrowded, over-annoying places to which one does not look forward. However, general airport security does outweigh these professed disadvantages. Today, a permanent working group constantly monitors the various comings and goings in airport, and suggests ways in which aviation security could be improved. Individuals in this working group include the following stakeholders:

Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association;

Airport Consultants Council;

American Association of Airport Executives;

Experimental Aircraft Association;

General Aviation Manufacturers Association;

Helicopter Association International;

National Air Transportation Association;

National Association of State Aviation Officials;

National Business Aviation Association; and,

United States Parachute Association.

Post 9/11 Security

Despite the working group presented above, post 9/11 security entails measures that must be carried out in a dedicated, complex manner in order to be efficient, even if they, in turn, have a negative impact on airport efficiency. Without a doubt, these measures that provoke so much annoyance have a positive impact on the security of airports and the sky. Post 9/11 security comes with much pain, but many rewards as well (i.e. over 10 years of safe flight).

Such security measures are, however, constantly revised. For instance, in a study conducted quite recently at Cornell University, two professors examined the impact of such airport security measures on air travel, which included the impact upon airport security personnel and passengers. These two individuals utilized five years of data geared towards analyzing passenger volume and direct effects of the implementation of various post 9/11 rules, such as additional baggage screening regulations and the 'federalization of passenger screening on the demand for air travel.' The authors state,

"These two congressionally mandated measures are the most visible changes in airport security following the & #8230; attacks. Exploiting the phased introduction of security measures across airports, we find that baggage screening reduces passenger volume by about six percent on all flights, and by about nine percent on flights departing from the nations' fifty busiest airports."

Thought the study finds that there is less volume given these new security screening procedures, it also deduces that the reduction is in no way connected with any criminal activity, yet it can have harmful effects on airline business. In other words, because of 9/11 and the hassles that come with screening and despite the protection that these processes may offer, many choose not to travel, leading the airline business to lose billions.

Weaknesses in Aviation Security

It is because of such measures as described above, and such data, that airports constantly revise and improve their measures. One way in which to do so is to look for weaknesses and also look as to how one can improve such processes. According to a working paper on the topic, limited access and screeners are a particular problem. The paper gives the following example with regards to the two topics:

1. "Controls for limiting access to secure areas & #8230; have not always worked as intended. As we reported in May 2000, our special agents used counterfeit law enforcement badges and credential to gain access to secure areas..."