Airline Terrorism
Whether we would like to admit it or not,
aircraft terrorism is a very real and
deadly subject. Inside nothing more
than a small suitcase, a carefully assembled
explosive can bring an ending to
the lives of countless men, women, and
children, with no preference or regard
to age, sex, and religion. In a single
moment and flash, families are torn
apart as their loved ones become victims of
terrorism. As the airline price
wars have continued to rage, the amount of
fliers increase at phenomenal
rates. The airports are filled to maximum capacity
with people all interested
in just surviving the long lines and finally finding
relaxation in their
aircraft seats with the help of a cold drink and pillow.
Sadly, it has
come to the point where one must consider if the passengers should
be
relaxing. The half a billion passengers that rush through a terminal
each
year are completely unaware of how much trust they are putting in a
small,
antiquated machine that scans their luggage. Teams of employees
working for the
government have been successful in passing through metal
detectors armed with
knives, guns, and even a discharged hand grenade.
Reports Doug Smith of USA
Today: "The fact that the people manning these
machines and airport gates make
less than someone at McDonald’s and usually
are uneducated average Dicks or
Janes, may be part of the problem." In
most of England, the guards are
expertly trained and receive high pay. The
issue of sabotage and criminal
attacks on aircraft is one that is horrifying
to contemplate. However, the
potential is ever present and cannot be swept
under some political carpet. The
statistics as provided by the NTSB and FAA
are ugly, and the results of these
accidents uglier still. The bombing of Pan
Am flight 103 over Lockerbie,
Scotland, on December 21, 1988 and another
similar bombing on an Air India
flight in June, 1985 are forever etched in
our memories. Around 1,000 aircraft
passengers have been killed in the past
ten years due to terrorist bomb attacks
on civilian aircraft (NTSB). If the
yet to be solved TWA flight 800 mystery
proves to be a victim as well, the
number soars to over 1,300 (NTSB). The
government is aware of the problems,
but chooses to act after the fact, despite
the countless warnings that
precede a massacre given to them by safety experts
in the aviation industry.
One only needs look at current and past legislation
that follows an
occurrence. "In the next ten years, I believe the likelihood
is pretty good
that there will be a bombing of a domestic flight. There are too
many
dissident groups in the world and too many nuts willing to do the
unspeakable
in order to get into the history books (McGuire)." In the book
that provides
a consumer’s examination of airline safety, Collision Course, by
Ralph
Nader, numerous employees voicing the need for improved safety and
terrorism
countermeasures are quoted. What is so frightening is that examination
of the
quotations reveals that they are from the mouths of highly
respected
officials who find themselves tangled in the slow process of
instituting new
laws to protect travelers by increasing safety regulations.
There are two ways
to significantly reduce the possibility of such calamities
as aircraft bombings.
Ideally, security checks would be sufficiently
stringent to prevent any bombs
from being smuggled on board the plane. Steps
are being taken, with passengers
having to be matched to their luggage by
photo identification prior to departure
in the United States. Secondly, a
modification of the aircraft should be
considered. More specifically, the
cargo and baggage holds (St. John). According
to the study, Technology
Against Terrorism: Structuring Security, by the U.S.
Congress, Office of
Technology Assessment (January 1992): "Explosive devices
of the size used in
airline terrorist events to date are deadly not because they
directly cause
catastrophic failure (blow the airplane to pieces), but because
they start a
domino effect where the aircraft destroys itself." The low level
and poor
quality of airport and airline security measures mandated by the
FARs
(Federal Aviation Regulations) have left domestic flights dangerously
vulnerable
to criminal attacks. Properly applied bomb-resistant materials
could save
passenger lives in the event of an explosion in a plane while
flying, or on the
ground. The effort would also act as a deterrent to
would-be criminals who most
likely would give up their efforts upon learning
their master-plans would amount
to nothing, even if they beat the initial
airport security screening. If this
plan is tangible, the FAA must implement
it and make it mandatory for all
airlines to purchase and install these
containers, just as they must force
airports to install the successfully
tested CTX-5000 scanners (Nader). Yes,
these scanners do cost in the millions
for each individual unit, but what price
tag can one place on a human life?
Unfortunately, the probability of these
scanners seeing full service is close
to nil. The FAA sides with the airlines in
order to keep more passengers
airborne, and in order to make more money. If the
airlines don’t feel like
paying for new technology, they obviously feel they
can afford to pay the
resulting fees and lawsuits when a plane goes down.
Director of San
Francisco International Airport, Louis Turpen was angrily quoted
in Aviation
Week & Space Technology as saying: "Our industry continues to
react to
aviation security needs in a dangerously piecemeal and fragmented
fashion."
Of all the airline safety issues, the threat of terrorism and
sabotage might
be the most emotional, and understandably so. The dictionary
defines
terrorism as "the systematic use of violence – such as bombing,
killing,
hostage taking, and hijacking – to promote a political objective
(One-look)."
In the article "Hostage-taking and Terrorism," in the May
1992 issue of
Flight Safety Digest, it reads: "We never know when or where
this war
(terrorism) will break out, but we must be prepared for it." The
current
practice aforementioned of instituting laws only for the sake of easing
the
grief of families who just had their loved ones blown out of the sky
is
ridiculous. By assuming worst case scenarios while fixing these problems,
every
traveler and member of the travel industry will benefit from an added
degree of
safety. When a permanent solution is found for a problem before it
occurs,
won’t this keep it from ever being an issue? No one as of yet has
complained
of too much safety while traveling. "Everyone within the system
seems to want
to do as little as absolutely necessary when it comes to
aviation security (Pan
Am victim)." The unsettling part about this
comment is that throughout the
course of history this has been the case.
Without the institution of new
security programs, the cyclical nature of
these disasters will continue. As
mentioned previously, the airlines must
follow certain FARs. What wasn’t
mentioned was that they establish minimum
safety standards beneath which the
airlines cannot conduct business. So long
as they meet these minimums, the
airlines are deemed "safe" by the FAA and
the agency can’t compel the
airlines to exceed FAR requirements (FAA). They
need to. Meeting the minimums
and doing only what is required of them isn’t
enough. If it was, there
wouldn’t be crashes such as the Pan Am, Air India,
or possibly the TWA flight.
A person who has just found out they lost
their entire family in an air disaster
is not interested in hearing how the
airline managed to save a few dollars by
reducing the security department.
While hurtling through the air in a thin
aluminum tube, hundreds of people
are innocent pawns in political wars.
Terrorists have concurred that the
easiest way to hurt a country is not to kill
members of the military, but
rather to kill civilians who never imagined the
threat they were exposed to
(Grayson). The president has been advised
repeatedly, for example: "The
nation must act to deter and prevent the use of
terrorism against civil
aviation as a deadly tool of political policy. The Pan
Am experience
demands nothing less (McLaughlin)." As a solution to terrorist
attacks, many
steps need to be taken towards the overall improvement of the
airline
security system, to deter terrorists and their bombs. The FAA needs to
force
foreign carriers to meet domestic standards. This will be met negatively
at
first, but it is for their own good. If they had adopted these standards
in
the past, perhaps they would not have such an alarmingly high sabotage
rate when
compared to the United States based carriers (Simon). The FAA
should establish a
single minimum-security standard for all airlines
operating under its governing
areas. Thus, many loopholes and special
privileges would be eliminated.
Maintaining the freedom to increase
security as the need arises will help place
airports on alert levels.
Improvements in metal and x-ray detection technology
would take care of much
of the second-guessing that produces those long waits
nobody enjoys before
boarding a plane. Because more than one billion pieces of
luggage visit the
belly of an airliner on a domestic flight yearly, it would be
incredibly
safer if we knew who they belonged to, for sure (Nader). The matching
of
passengers with luggage internationally and domestically is a
worthwhile
effort that is already proving itself. Keeping the public informed
of current
activities and efforts would do wonders for the airline business.
Passengers
would be more than appreciative if informed that their selected
airline is a
potential target of a terrorist group. Recent investigations
have shown that
Washington received an anonymous letter before the Pan Am
attack stating:
"Team of Palestinians not associated with Palestinian
Liberation Organization
(PLO) intends to attack US targets in Europe. Time
frame is present. Targets
specified are Pan American airlines and US military
bases (The Guardian)." Had
passengers been made aware of a potential
catastrophe, countless lives may have
been saved. In the airline world,
security is said to be spelled with a $. To
remedy these explosive costs, why
not place security measures under one federal
office, use a trendy
lease-to-own option with the security equipment, and make
use of the seven
billion dollars intended to be used for aviation safety issues
that is
instead being used to contribute to our horrific national debt. When all
is
said and done, combating aircraft bombings and terrorism comes down to
one
issue: How badly do we desire this issue to be resolved, and what price
are we
willing to pay? Imperfections in this world have allowed for people to
get away
with far too much, and as long as they believe it is achievable, the
massacres
can continue. With a total commitment on our part and the aviation
industry,
this war against terrorism will be won. Friendly skies do not have
to be an
ideal.