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Aviation Security 1950-2000
Threat and Response
Thethreattocivil aviation overthelast25yearshas notdiminished.
It
remainsa
dangerous
world.The
number
ofincidents worldwideofunlawful interference with
civil
aviation, primarily hijacking andsabotage, have decreased over the last 25 years, while the number of
flights,
enplanements and passenger-miles flown by scheduled aircarriers have increased. As graphically demonstrated by the two mostrecent hijackings, however, this decrease in the number of events doesnot minimize the tragedy of these
crimes.
Governments, airlines andairports must
work
together cooperatively
to
achieve
our
common
goal:
safe
and secure air transportation worldwide.When hijacking was an all too frequent occurrence in the late
1960's
and 1970-71, air carriers voluntarily cooperated with the FederalGovernment
on
measures
to
counter
the
threat,
but not
without someconcern. One history describes the situation at the
time
as follows:"The airlines as a group had consistently argued thatcombating hijacking
and
airport security were
largely
Federal responsibilities.
They
had therefore fought forFederaloperation and
payment
foranti-hijacking
programs.
The airlines were especially
unhappy
about the prospect oftheiremployees physically searching passengers
or
engagingin any other activities normally assigned to lawenforcement
officials.
Most were, therefore, pleased with
the
infusionofFederal agents underthe skymarshalprogram. When it became clear that security systems would
have to be
extended
to
virtually
all of
their boarding
areas,
theairlines begananintensive lobbying campaign
for
an
expansion
of theexisting Federal security forceto
handletheoperation."
1
Criminal
acts
against civil aviationare notcommitted exclusivelybyterrorists. Most crimes against civil aviation have been committed bymentally deranged persons, or fugitives and would-be refugees whoresorted to hijacking
only
as a means of transportation with no clearintention of harming the aircraft or its
occupants.
Others are
more
deadly. In 1955, a United Airlines aircraft disintegrated in flight 11minutes after takeoff near
Longmont,
Colorado.
A
dynamite bombdetonated in a baggage compartment, killing 39 passengers and fivecrew. One J. Graham was arrested, tried, and executed for the crime,
for
which the motive was insurance
fraud.
2
Another incident of sabotageover Bolivia, North Carolina, in early 1960 killed 34 passengers andcrewand wasalso relatedtoinsurance fraud.Aceilingon the
amount
of
airline
trip
insurance passengers can purchase was imposed, and
1
Kent, Richard
J.,
Jr., "Safe, Separated
and
Soaring:
A
History
of
Federal
Civil
Aviation
Policy
1961-1972,"
U.S. Department
of
Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration,
1980,
pp. 349-50.
2
President's Commission on
Aviation
Security and Terrorism,
"Report
to the President," Washington, DC, May
15,1990,p.160.
 
baggage screening was improved. Domestic airline sabotage declineduntil there were no fatal incidents in the
1970
's.
3
In
1969, Eastern Air Lines voluntarily agreed to an FAA test of an"operational screening system for boarding airline passengers" with"weapon-detection devices" used in conjunction with
"FAA's
evolvingpsychological profile to identify and isolate suspicious individuals
for
further surveillance or
search."
4
Eastern was joined later in thatyear by
TWA,
Pan Am, and Continental in "using the screening
system."
5
The sharing of the costs of passenger screening was then and has
continued
to be a
topic
of
debate
and
divided
opinions. A
solutionfound in 1972 was to require air carriers to provide screeningpersonnel and the airport operators to provide law enforcement support.On March 18, 1972, Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)part 107 was issued requiring each airport operator to implementprescribed security measures by developing and observing an
airport-specific
security program. Part 107 has been amended onseveral occasions. On
January
15, 1981, Title 14 CFR part 108was issued to separate air carrier security requirements frompart 121, which contains general safety requirements for largetransport category aircraft. Historically, the threat ofhijacking has been directed toward large passenger-carrying
aircraft.
The security requirements needed to protect those
aircraft
were placed in this new part 108 with applicability toscheduled and public charter passenger
operations.
While
there were 134 domestic hijackings between 1961 and 1972, andseven explosions aboard commercial aircraft between 1955 and 1976 in
,
|
these domestic security incidents
did
not
contain
clearly
"terrorist" elements until
a
hijacking
at
LaGuardiaAirport
inSeptember
1976.
A
group
called "Fighters for Free Croatia" hijacked aTWA flight bound for Chicago. After stops in
Montreal,
Quebec; Gander,Newfoundland;andIcelandforrefueling, they dropped leaflets over
London
and Paris landed in Paris and
surrendered.
6
Ironically, theperpetrators believed that security screeningwastightatLaGuardiaand decided to use simulated explosives made from material smuggled onboard rather than traditional weapons, which probably would have beendiscovered. The
group
met the profile and triggered more than usualrigorous searching.
The
ruse
was
bolstered
by a
genuine
bomb that
had
been planted in a New
York
subway locker; the hijackers notified
police,
and the bomb exploded during
examination.
7
3
Rochester,
StuartI.,
"Takeoff
at
Mid-century: Federal Civil Aviation Policy
in the
Eisenhower Years
1953-1961,"
U.S. Department
of
Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Washington
DC,
1976,
pp.
262-3
&
275.
4
Kent, Richard J., Jr., "Safe, Separated and Soaring: A History of Federal
Civil
Aviation Policy 1961 -
1972,"
U.S. Department of
Transportation,
Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC, 1980, p. 338. The recommendations and the test were devised by
theFAA
Task Force
on
Deterrence
of Air
Piracy, created
by
Acting Administrator Dave Thomas
on
February
17, 1969.
5
Id.,
p.
340.
6
St. John, Peter, "Air Piracy, Airport Security, and International
Terrorism,"
Quorum Books, New York,
Westport,
Connecticut, andLondon,
1991,
p. 31.
7
Preston, Edmund, "Troubled Passage: The Federal Aviation Administration During the Nixon-Ford
Term
1973-1977,"
U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, 1987, pp. 215-17. This incident should
not
be
confused
with
the
self-service
baggage locker bombing at LaGuardia Airport in New York on December 29, 1975. See also: Moore, Kenneth C.,
 
In
the 93rd Congress, 1st Session, Senator
Cannon,
Chairman of theAviation Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, introducedthe "Air
Transportation Security
Act of 1973" asS.39,"A Bill to amend
the
Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to provide a more effective program toprevent aircraft piracyand forother
purposes."
8
Formostof thelast
25
years, the executive branch of the Federal Government has maintained
that
providing security is a cost of doing business, which should beborne by the air carriers and airports just as they bear the cost ofensuring safe
operations.
The most authoritative statement of thisposition was recorded during the hearings in
February
and March 1973,which led to amendments to the Federal Aviation Act of
1958,
now
codifiedin
title
49,
United States Code. These amendments werecontained
in two
related titles
of
Public
Law
93-366:
title
I--the
Antihijacking
Act of
1974,
and
title
II--the
Air
Transportation
Security Act of 1974. In those hearings, the views of a high-rankingTransportation Department official clearly indicated that the users of
civil
aviation should bear its costs, and those costs explicitlyincluded those derived from the application of security
measures.
9
Through
the 1970's and into the
1980's,
concerted action by the worldaviation community reduced the number of hijacking attempts. A number
of
approaches
to the
problems caused
by the
threat
of
terrorism
and
other criminal acts against civil aviation were taken in those twodecades.
They
include:
•
more effective passenger
and
baggage screening;
•
imposition
of
contingency
or
extraordinary security measures
in
special
circumstances;
•
worldwide
use of
x-ray
and
metal detection equipment;
•
increased
use of
other, more advanced screening
and
detection
devices;
•
in-depth assessments
of
U.S.
and
foreign airport
and air
carriersecurity;
• the
U.S. Federal
Air
Marshal Program;
•
tightened control
of
access
to
aircraft
and
security sensitive
areas;
•
increased research
and
development
of
explosives detection
and
othersecurity technologies;
•
improved analyses
of
intelligence
on
terrorist activities; and,
•
better technical assistance
and
training.The
1980's
saw a change in the nature of violent acts against aviation.Hijacking, seemingly the preferred form of criminal and terrorist
"Airport,
Aircraft,
and
Airline Security," Second
Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, a
division
of
Reed Publishing (USA), Inc., Boston,London, Oxford, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto,andWellington, 1991,pp. 28,165,and389.
8
S.39
was
introduced
on
January
4,
1973. Senator Cannon then noted that there were more than 1,700 Federal security
officers
onduty at
U.S. airports.
9
"Anti-Hijacking Act of
1973":
Hearings on H.R. 3858, H.R. 670, H.R.
3953,
and H.R. 4287 (and all identical or similar bills) before
the
Subcommittee
on
Transportation
and
Aeronautics, House Committee
on
Interstate
and
Foreign
Commerce,
93rd
Cong.
222
(1973)
(statement
ofHon.
Egil
Krogh, Jr.,
Under
Secretary,
DepartmentofTransportation), February27,1973.Seealso
Kent,
RichardJ.,Jr., "Safe, Separated and Soaring: A History of Federal Civil Aviation Policy
1961
-
1972,"
U.S. Department of Transportation,
Federal
Aviation
Administration,
Washington,
DC,
1980.
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