This paper examines the frameworks and strategies the United States employs to maintain aviation security for both passengers and cargo. Drawing on the Department of Homeland Security's National Strategy for Aviation Security, the Aviation Operational Threat Response Plan, and remarks from TSA Administrator John Pistole at the 2011 Aviation Security Summit, the paper outlines key protective measures — including federalized screening, air marshals, hardened cockpit doors, and explosive detection technology. It also identifies the primary threat categories: terrorist organizations, hostile nation-states, and other criminal actors. The paper concludes that sustained vigilance, interagency intelligence sharing, and international cooperation are essential to staying ahead of evolving aviation threats.
Keeping passengers safe during flights involves more than ensuring that the aircraft in use is fully functional and operationally fit. Aviation security involves keeping dangerous individuals from becoming passengers, which requires security checks during the boarding process and beyond. This paper examines the steps that government officials and airline management must take to ensure the safety and security of both private and commercial air travel.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created following the attacks on the United States in which the World Trade Center and Pentagon were struck by hijacked commercial airliners due to flaws in security checkpoints, holds ultimate responsibility for aviation security and safety in America. The DHS published a document entitled "The National Strategy for Aviation Security" in 2007. Within that document, readers find the foundational theories and strategies for keeping the airways safe and passengers secure from the time they board until they de-plane. The publication asserts that aviation security can be best achieved by "integrating public and private aviation security global activities" into a "coordinated effort to detect, deter, prevent, and defeat threats to the Air Domain" (DHS, p. 2).
Achieving security also entails reducing "vulnerabilities" — such as those that existed when terrorists were able to carry plastic knives through security checkpoints — and minimizing the "consequences of, and expediting the recovery from, attacks that might occur" (DHS, p. 2). The publication describes several measures already taken to address these goals, including:
a) A federalized Transportation Security Officer workforce that "screens passengers and baggage traveling on passenger aircraft"; b) "hardened doors to prevent unauthorized access to the flight deck"; c) air marshals on the federal payroll who fly "anonymously on commercial passenger aircraft," providing an armed law enforcement presence on select flights; d) "enhanced explosives and threat detection technology" established in "hundreds of airports"; e) newly developed air traffic management security measures; and f) "a cadre of canine explosives detection teams" that screen baggage, cargo, and increasingly carry-on items (DHS, p. 6).
Understanding the threats to aviation safety is an important first step — beyond ensuring that passengers are thoroughly screened before boarding. The DHS describes these threats as threefold: terrorist groups, hostile nation-states, and "other criminals" (DHS, p. 8). Terrorist groups are well understood, but the nation-state dimension deserves closer examination.
The DHS explains that some nation-states "provide training, funding, supplies, and operational direction to surrogates" that have terrorism on their agenda. Others "knowingly or unknowingly provide safe havens for terrorists" planning to attack the United States through aviation (DHS, p. 9). In other cases, terrorists can exploit states with "weak command and control over their aviation infrastructure" (DHS, p. 9).
In addition to commercial airlines, the air-cargo industry faces significant threats. The regulatory framework for cargo systems "is not immune to exploitation," the DHS notes, though "enhanced security measures" at airfreight terminals have reduced threats such as "stowaways aboard air freighters" and the use of concealed explosives (DHS, p. 11). Effective preventative measures involve forging "cooperative partnerships and alliances with other nations, as well as with public and private stakeholders in the international community" (DHS, p. 15). Another critical element is the need to "integrate surveillance data, all-source intelligence, law enforcement information, and relevant open-source data" from private and public sectors both domestically and abroad (DHS, p. 17).
"DHS intelligence-driven operational response framework"
"PreCheck, cargo screening, and intelligence-driven TSA methods"
The United States can never have too much security in its aviation sector, and terrorists will always be attempting new and dangerous plots to attack Americans and the homeland. For these reasons, vigilance, creative thinking, and advanced technological development will be required on an ongoing basis to meet and defeat newer threats — and to stay a step or two ahead of those who seek to exploit vulnerabilities in the national aviation system.
You’re 72% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 2 sections.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.