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Airport Security After 9/11

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Some Americans can remember a time when airport security appropriated only a little more than twenty minutes. However, after September 11, 2001 that continues to significantly change. On the day known as 9/11, four commercial flights were hijacked by 19 terrorists from the group known as al-Qaeda. These planes were aimed toward major government buildings, including the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. Two of them succeeded in colliding with the World Trade Center and another crashed in the Pentagon. This brutal attack sent shock waves through the nation. Considering nineteen out of nineteen terrorists were able to effortlessly breach security, the attack displayed the ineptness of security for commercial …show more content…
In 2002 the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) took over security matters in airports (Blalock, Kadiyali, Simon). The TSA immediately began organizing detailed security checks that require passengers to arrive two hours earlier. Due to the changes in security checks, the TSA began the hiring process of over 50,000 new employees. Though, unlike the sixteen hour training of previous employees, new personnel were, and still are, required to have over a hundred hours of training. The TSA continues to maintain this high number of personnel in order to compensate for longer security checks.
Other changes in security lines require passengers to remove their shoes because of a botched shoe bombing. Another addition to security derived when a suicide bomber stuffed his underwear with plastic explosive. The security checks were unable to detect the bomb, and since then passengers can be randomly selected for routine searches, including pat-downs. Also, after terrorists attempted to use printer cartridges and other liquids to cause destruction, security limits the accepted ounces to 3.4oz …show more content…
Since September 11, 2001, the number of air marshals emerging on commercial flights increased exponentially. In the past sky marshals only flew on international flights, since the federal government deemed international affairs less secure. Now air marshals ride most airlines around the country. The job of a federal air marshal is to secure the flight while it is in the air (IATA). They keep peace between passengers on flights, and deter anyone from attempting to hijack or intervene with the airplane. A federal air marshal also has the duty of determining whether or not a situation is contained enough to proceed to its destination, or if it should be redirected to the nearest landing zone (TSA). In recent months, commotion and disagreements between passengers escalated to the point of emergency landings. Three of these disputes were instigated over the reclining of seats. As one passenger felt the need to recline, another felt their space had been impeded and employed to use of a device that bars a seat from reclining (Ohlheiser). Other recent emergency landings were determined with the nation’s safety in mind. For instance, with the outbreak of Ebola, jokes from passengers with fevers were taken with the utmost seriousness, and are emergency landed. One man made the decision to state “I have Ebola. You’re all screwed,” directly after he sneezed, and another

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