The Challenge of Balancing Security and Costs
The terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, led to a great increase in concern about airline safety and security with regard to terrorism. That airline passengers and crew were at some risk from terrorism was well known; airliners had been prominent targets from the beginning of the modern wave of terrorism in the 1970s. September 11, however, showed that an airliner could also be used as a weapon of mass destruction, due primarily to the thousands of gallons of jet fuel in the tanks of a large airliner. Thus, airline safety became a matter of concern not only to the traveling public but even to people who have never boarded an airplane.
Even apart from the possible use of aircraft as terrorist weapons, September 11 changed the stakes for dealing with hijackers. "Traditional" terrorist hijackers seized aircraft and their passengers in order to hold hostages and make demands. Hostages were indeed killed in such hijackings, but only to drive home the seriousness of the terrorists' threat. The hijacker's intent was to bargain with hostages, not simply to kill them. Thus, airline crews were trained to cooperate with hijackers.
The single most important security response to September 11 was thus in a sense automatic: Pilots, flight attendants, and passengers are all acutely aware that a suicide hijacker may intend to crash a plane, and all respond accordingly. The late-2001 incident involving "shoe bomber" Richard Reid showed the effectiveness of citizen awareness and response to the new, deadlier threat of suicide terrorism.
In addition, the airlines, airports, and the federal government all undertook new security measures in response to September 11. These have ranged from strengthening the cockpit doors of aircraft so that a hijacker cannot force his way into the flight deck, to such rather ludicrous measures as confiscating penknives and letter o
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