Hijacking problem. Is TSA too late?

 

   

     While panning through aviation history I came across an event that became more frequent through the years. Highjacking poses a constant threat in aviation. In 1972 around ten hijackings took place in the U.S alone. Toward the end of the year the FAA imposed an anti-hijacking rule that would inspect all carry on luggage and implement the use of medal detectors and pat downs (Timeline of FAA). Fast forward 29 years to November of 2001. Just two months after the tragic events of 9/11. George W. Bush signed a law that gave us the Transportation Security Administration ( Timeline of FAA).  Although we sometimes see airport security as a tedious and inconvenient task, commercial airports need top tier security to eliminate the risk of these hostile take overs that result in the loss of lives. 

    I am sold out to the idea of protecting the lives of all passengers. We’ve seen the devastation that the lack of security measures can make. I believe we are on the right track now. In fact recent federal allocating of funds could have been better spent on aviation security rather than IRS agents. My main issue with the evolution of hijacking’s prevention is the fact that it took over 30 years to put a real plan in place. While reading through the timeline I notice time and time again that the topics was more about profits or the economics concerning air routes rather than safety of the personnel during the flights (deregulation and consequences). You’ll see that air Marshall’s were tagged into flights and other measures were taken. Compared to previous attempts TSA was a real plan that was proactive instead of reactive and tried to stop the threat before it was able to manifested. There are great procedures in place now to help prevent such incidents. Signing a law that added a section just for the security of airports was a needed move. I just believe they should have done this earlier in aviation. 

                                                                        References

Timeline of FAA and aerospace history,( https://www.faa.gov/about/history/timeline)

Deregulation and consequences,                                                                                                                                             (https://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Commercial_Aviation/Dereg/Tran8.htm)