Dickerson 1

Matthew Dickerson
ENG 1201
Professor Johnson
6 May 2022
How can Airport Security be More Effective?
Airport security has existed for several decades in almost every country that provides

commercial air travel. The United States has the largest amount of airport security out of all the

other countries in comparison. Despite this, many incidents have occurred, which were supposed

to be stopped by the substantial amounts of airport security the U.S. possess. This could beg the

question, is the U.S. providing enough airport security and is it safe enough for air travelers?

Airport security within the United States needs to be improved by enhancing the tactics used to

secure an airport, so air travel can become safer and less lives are put in danger.

Since the early 1900’s, there have been many different forms of commercial and private

air travel available to the United States public and the rest of the world within later years. This

means that there has been over a century of private and commercial flying up to this point.

Despite commercial air travel being around for this long, the United States and the rest of the

world did not take many precautions when it came to the integrity of safety for air travel. It has

only been until recently that the United States created a nationwide administration to organize

and provide protection of air travel for its citizens. “The Aviation and Transportation Security

Act, passed by the 107th Congress and signed on November 19, 2001, established TSA”

(Transportation Security Administration) (“Security Screening”). The reason for this is due to the

2001 terrorist attack that occurred on September 11th, where four commercial aircraft owned by

American Airlines and United Airlines were hijacked by terrorists and then intentionally

wrecked into 3-star American landmarks as well as a field in Pennsylvania, resulting in the
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deaths of thousands of American lives. Before this well-known attack, the U.S. never formally

provided an organization that played a role in airport security, even after all the many hijackings

and fatal aircraft incidents that occurred in the mid to late 1900’s (Hay) (“Airlines Security”).

This means that the utilization of time that the United States had was quite poor given the

problems and risks that having no security gave to air travel. One major risk posed to

commercial air travel during the 1900’s was hijacking.

Hijacking is one of the more commonly known forms of aviation terrorism and originally

was one of the most performed in the 1900’s. “The first reported act of airplane hijacking was

committed on 21 February 1931 in Peru” (Coleman) (Hijacking, Airplane). “The first reported

hijacking of a U.S. airplane occurred on 1 May 1961” (Coleman) (Hijacking, Airplane). This

shows how early aviation terrorism began. During these time periods before 2001, there was no

real attempt to prevent things like this from occurring besides basic security. This is vastly

different in comparison to the present. Now, the United States government provides its citizens

with the relative safety of air travel by the utilization of the Transportation Security

Administration and other forms of regulatory airport security. The main way that this occurs is

by the organization of security checkpoints throughout airports before you are able to reach the

terminals (Price and Forrest) (Practical Aviation). In comparison to this, in the early to mid-

1900’s, a person used to be able to walk directly to their gate without going through any type of

security measures. This, of course, led to many issues where people would take illegal objects

and transport them on aircrafts, such as firearms, drugs and much more. Even despite the new

security measures that have been introduced since 2001, people still attempt to take illegal

objects through security and onto their flights. Most people are unsuccessful in doing such a

thing, but there are still many times where people manage to succeed. “TSA officers seized 254
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firearms at North Carolina airports in 2021” (TSA Seizes). This shows how many people have

attempted to bring firearms onto flights in just the state of North Carolina in the year 2021 which

is only one out of fifty states in the United States.

Fig. 1. This bar graph displays the number of firearms that were discovered through TSA

checkpoints from the year 2009 to 2021 as of December 14, 2021 (Richter) (Record Number).

In the United States, 5,972 firearms were taken by TSA officers at airports during the

entirety of 2021, in comparison to 3,257 in the previous year (TSA Seizes). This means a

tremendous amount of people are trying to bring firearms through U.S. airport security and were

caught in the attempt to do so. This does not even show how many firearms have potentially
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made it through airport security without the knowledge of the Transportation Security

Administration. Also, with this many firearms, it is exceedingly easy to make an estimation that

many other illegal objects such as knives are most likely getting through security in some

assortment of ways as well.

One way that illegal objects are getting through airport security is due to complacent

security professionals. It is extremely easy for Transportation Security Administration officers to

become very complacent in the way that they do their job because of how much of a repetitive

task it is in comparison to many other jobs. It is as simple as not looking thoroughly through an

X-ray machine’s display of luggage, or a TSA officer deciding to simply not do portions of their

job because they dislike what they do and potentially get paid less than what they believe they

should make. I have seen this many times from my job at Dayton International Airport in

Dayton, OH. This is the same for many other portions of airport security. “Airport policemen

tend to not care at all what goes on around here at Dayton” (Pierce) (Interview). Complacency

even occurs within airport police officers because they have done their jobs for usually a long

portion of time and have become very relaxed in the way that they do their work and miss crucial

things that could lead to a major security risk. This is a main reason why airport security should

be improved. One way that it could be improved is by creating more security forces. This means

more security checkpoints and measures that allow for even more thorough searches of

passengers' luggage, belongings, and general person. This would most likely allow for fewer

hijackings because of there being less weapons and illegal objects that would get passed security.

This also in general allows for fewer acts of terrorism by providing more security to combat

explosive devices and things to harm other passengers, or themselves on a commercial flight. If

more security was added, then air travel security risks would most likely not occur as much, or
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even at all in comparison to how it currently is now (Black Pearl Productions, Inc.) (The Myth).

This sounds like a very promising way to prevent such events from happening, however, this

would in return cause many potential issues with other passengers.

Many people already complain about lines in security being too long and much more

excessive than they need to be. Most people tend to not enjoy the mandatory action of taking off

their shoes and belts whilst going through airport security because of how odd it is to do and how

much it seems to be unnecessary. The main reason most passengers heavily despise doing such a

task is because it is such a large hassle and takes too much time which they could be using to

walk to their far away gate to be on time for their flight (Stotz) (Perceived Cost). This is mainly

why such a form of additional security would cause significant issues and complaints from

passengers.

Fig. 1. This image shows general security screening on the right side and premium security

screening on the left side of a busy Seattle-Tacoma International Airport TSA security

checkpoint (Baskas) (Summer Flies).

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Another potential way that more security measures could be implemented is by allowing

for pre-screening (Stotz) (Perceived Cost). This is relatively similar to TSA’s program widely

known as pre-check, which allows for a person to receive a mark on their ticket to let them

through security faster after a pre-screening process. One way this could be implemented is by

pre-screening passengers before their flights, but also still providing the same security measures

that are already in place. This would allow for another layer of security that we do not already

have for other passengers that have not completed the pre-check process. Also, in doing this, it

would not necessarily slow down a person at the airport trying to get to their gate to not miss

their flight on the day of departure, consequently allowing for the same amount of time through

security on the day of departure, but also providing an extra, necessary layer of protection that

would supply more safety to commercial air travelers. There is a possibility that it could allow

for fewer illegal weapons and objects on airlines and provide for a much safer travel experience

for the public.

It is quite difficult to create a security measure that provides more safety, yet more

efficiency to travel, or at least the same amount of time spent during screening. “The FAA is

constantly trying to improve the TSA in order to provide better safety for travelers” (Black Pearl)

(The Myth). Despite their noted attempts to try to make security better, the TSA has remained

the same and surprisingly more firearms and illegal objects have been discovered through

security screening. This could, of course, be seen in two ways such as how the security screening

is catching more firearms because it has improved its tactics, or more people are managing to get

their firearms into the airport and potentially through security. One possibility that could

potentially allow for fewer illegal objects getting through security is providing another security

checkpoint prior to entering airport grounds, restricting the items allowed on the general airport
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premises before getting to the Transportation Security Administration’s checkpoint. This could

be done by utilizing either airport police, or some assortment of other organizations that may be

created specifically for this purpose. The organization would then be provided with permanent

security buildings around the entrance to the airport. This would almost be similar to the United

States’ and Mexico’s border by screening vehicles and persons before they are able to enter the

airport premises. This, of course, would allow for better protection for airports, but mainly air

travelers that are flying on airliners. Despite this, there would be a large possibility of many

complaints from a substantially large number of travelers.

If a security checkpoint were to be added on the borders of the airport and specifically not

let people onto the airport property unless they are screened first, then this would have a large

possibility of providing major backups. This means people would have to go through another

security checkpoint, thus slowing their travel. “People don’t like being slowed down at the

airport” (Pierce) (Interview). This most likely means that most travelers would not be happy with

this, which would cause backlash and potentially have many negative consequences. One

consequence could be that people just stop flying the airlines as much, which would slow down

transportation and would also stimulate the economy less, thus making it more difficult to pay

for airport security and many other airport necessities. Another issue could be that people would

find ways around security. One way that this could occur is by someone simply bypassing

security by finding another entrance that doesn’t have it, or by some other means. Another way

that this could occur is through people finding more creative ways of hiding and packing their

objects. This could be done by storing objects inside of the interior of a vehicle, or suitcase, but it

could also be done by packaging illegal objects into different items, or very deep inside of their

other items which makes it difficult for X-ray machines and security personnel to detect. In some
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way, or another, this form of security seems quite useless in the aspect that it does not provide as

much security as one might expect. There are of course many different ways that security could

be added to the entirety of airports.

Private aviation is usually a side of travel which tends to see no assortment of security at

all. Due to my employment at a private fixed-based operator (FBO) called Aviation Sales Inc. in

Dayton International Airport (DAY), I see the problem with no security in private aviation

almost every day. The reason for there being no security in private aviation is because no

regulations have ever been put in place within the private portion of aviation. This is mainly

because private aviation usually carries an exceedingly small number of passengers in

comparison to the vastly larger number of passengers that fly on the airlines which would be put

at more risk, because of the fact that terrorists’ main goal is to eliminate as many targets as

possible at once. One could argue that private aviation needs to have some kind of security at the

airport due to the possibility of how easy it is for someone to hijack a private aircraft that are not

legally required to have any onboard security measures to ensure that it does not happen.

Commercial airliners at least have locked cockpit doors with cameras in order to make sure they

let in This could be awfully bad if a person has a weapon and there is no assortment of security

guarding the private aircraft at all, other than airport police which would take time to respond

depending on how an airport is laid out. Even with this being a threat, surprisingly there have not

been many incidents of private aircraft being put in danger by passengers, or people on the

ground. This is most likely why no regulations have been put in place for the private side of

airport security. This means that this is most likely not necessary to do but would still provide an

extra layer of security to remove more risk from air travel, yet it would still slow down travel.
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With all this in mind, it seems like there needs to be an exceptionally large amount of

change when it comes to airport security. This being through adding more security checkpoints

and regulations, or simply having pre-screening processes before the day of a flight's departure.

Security in airports in the United States should be improved by using advanced security tactics

and ways to prevent terrorism, so that air travelers and the public may have a much safer time

through commercial aviation.

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