Today, September 11 (US time), the United States commemorates the 22nd anniversary of the hijacking of commercial aircraft and their crashes into the World Trade Center buildings in New York and the Pentagon. More than 3,000 people died.
Many things have changed forever since the terrorist attacks, including global aviation policies.
America today commemorates the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Flying before 9/11/2001 must have been very different.
Ask anyone old enough to remember and they will probably tell you the same thing. While there was security, it wasn’t as invasive as it is today, nor were there long lines at airport checkpoints.
Passengers can also arrive at the airport just minutes before their flight takes off and can put on their shoes and coats while passing through a simple metal detector. Not only that, but almost anyone can go straight to the gate without a boarding pass or even showing identification.
However, incidents over the past two decades have changed airport security.
Rewind to the 1970s, when a series of hijackings and attempted hijackings prompted the introduction of security checks on passengers and their belongings. Then, in 1988, the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, caused by a bomb hidden in checked baggage, was the catalyst for checked baggage screening.
However, it was the tragic events of the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001 that really brought about the intense focus on aviation security that we know today.
Most people remember exactly where they were when the shocking event happened - when four hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
It was the biggest terrorist attack our generation and perhaps the world has ever seen - and it will change the way we fly forever.
Nineteen al-Qaida-linked terrorists hijacked four planes on the morning of September 11, 2001, bypassing LAX airport security, passing through metal detectors at four airport security checkpoints with ease and armed with deadly weapons.
By the end of that day, 3,000 people were dead.
9/11 is a day Americans will never forget
200 security measures added
Travel expert Dr David Beirman of the University of Technology Sydney said hijackings had moved from a threat to the aircraft, its passengers and crew to the use of fuel-laden aircraft as weapons of mass destruction.
“In the six months after the 9/11 attacks, international air passenger numbers dropped dramatically. Although the 9/11 attacks targeted New York and Washington DC, there was a real concern that similar terrorist attacks could target buildings in any major city in the world,” he told news.com.au.
Dr. David Beirman, who published his first book in 2003, Restoring Tourism Destinations in Times of Crisis, devoted an entire chapter to the impact of 9/11 on the tourism industry, with an emphasis on aviation security.
“It is a global game changer for aviation and airport security,” he said.
Simple security check scene before 2001
In 2002, Dr. Beirman attended two conferences that reviewed global security measures after 9/11. "Aviation and airport security are tightly regulated globally. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is the United Nations agency that sets global standards for airlines, and the Airports Council International sets global standards for airport security.
These two agencies, together with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), have convened a number of meetings and conferences to jointly decide on post-9/11 security measures to enhance aviation and airport security," he said.
He attended two conferences – one in Hong Kong and one in Vancouver – attended by a large number of airline and airport executives as well as security experts.
The end result, Dr Beirman said, was a series of about 200 enhanced security measures, most of them technological and “very few of them publicly available”.
However, one of the most important and "quite basic" measures involves reinforcing and locking the doors to the aircraft cockpit.
"All four 9/11 hijackings involved terrorists entering the cockpit, in some cases killing the pilot, and taking control of the hijacked aircraft with the horrific results we saw in New York and Washington DC. This has happened in previous hijackings as well. Protecting the cockpit and crew is the most effective way to reduce the likelihood of a plane being taken over by terrorists.
"It is noteworthy that since September 11, 2001, although there have been a number of attempts to hijack and attack civil aircraft, there has been no attempt to take over the cockpit," he added.
The cockpit door was reinforced and locked after 2001.
After 9/11, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created and would become part of the newly created Homeland Security Agency in the United States.
Additionally, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act requires 100% of checked baggage to be X-rayed, and the law requires airlines to reinforce cockpit doors on their aircraft to prevent attackers from entering.
Nowadays, travelers often have to wait in long lines at security checkpoints with waiting times of up to more than an hour.
Depending on the type of footwear, some passengers will be asked to remove their shoes, empty their pockets and remove laptops and other devices and accessories, placing their carry-on luggage on a tray before entering a high-resolution full-body scanner.
All of which were not available before September 11, 2001.
US airlines lost $8 billion in 2001. The industry didn’t return to profit until 2006. Losses ballooned to $60 billion over that five-year period, and airlines lost money again in 2008 during the Great Recession. Post-9/11 job cuts numbered in the tens of thousands, and workers faced massive pay cuts. Only the Covid-19 pandemic has caused more job losses, but a record $54 billion federal bailout has prohibited airlines from laying off workers.
Even before the pandemic, employment in the US airline industry had not recovered to its 2001 peak, according to CNBC.
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