AIR SECURITY

Its difficult to think of something more distasteful than the reception the government of Libya gave to the freed terrorist last week who placed a bomb in an airplane and killed 270 people including 180 Americans in 1988. This incident is known as the Lockerbie bombing after the city in Scotland where the 747, en route from London to New York City, fell out of the air. The government of Libya accepted responsibility for this and other acts of terrorism.

It made me think of airport security and how it has changed over the years. I did a bit of flying in the late 1960's while in the Service and flew infrequently on business for the next twenty years. In the early 1990's, I became a more regular flyer until 1994 and 1995 when I flew somewhere almost every week of the year. Now I fly just a few times a year.

In the late 1960's, aircraft hijacking became a fad. Several were very high profile. Sky Marshals were introduced into American air travel but there were not enough to prevent much hijacking. Some hijackings were merely a means of monetary extortion...some were carried out by terrorists. Beginning in 1973, the government required airlines to search passengers and their carry-on luggage for weapons. This involved metal detection and carry-on baggage X-ray.

Every new security requirement we find at the airport is a result of some incident. Someone illegally enters an airplane and only ticketed people are allowed in terminals. Find a bomb or a weapon in a shoe and everyone has to take their shoes off to get through security. Find a liquid explosive in a shampoo bottle and we cannot carry on containers of liquid. I can't imagine what it will be like to get on an airplane in fifty years from now. People may be flying naked and empty-handed.
:D