After the events that took place on September 11, 2001, where nineteen men hijacked four commercial planes to make them crash into the Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, and another one which, apparently due to the heroic intervention of the passengers on board, crashed outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the way citizens around the world flew changed forever.
Due to the deep pain caused by this shocking terrorist day, the air authorities, at a global level, decided to tighten the rules that, from then on, passengers must comply with in order to access a commercial flight, issuing a specific list of those objects that cannot be carried on board. in cabin luggage, as well as a series of actions that each traveler must carry out when entering the airport, measures that have been designed to guarantee a safe trip.
Changes pre 9/11
Before the 21st century began, airlines had already been forced to implement security measures after several planes were hijacked bound for Cuba, at the height of the Revolution. These actions led them to instal metal detectors in the different airports in the United States (1973), and then spread around the world. Likewise, after a terrorist attack in Lockerbie, Scotland (1988), in which plastic explosives were camouflaged in a tape recorder, stricter controls for the identification of luggage began to be implemented.
Security checks at the airport after September 11
Starting with the tragic attacks on this date, in which several commercial aircraft were used as weapons to attack several of the symbols of American greatness, many measures and restrictions, which today we accept as normal, were issued to prevent these types of incidents are repeated.
In addition to having to arrive at the airport earlier to comply with the security protocols, issued after the attacks, this is what we must do before boarding a flight and the things that we cannot take with us in the flight cabin:
– No secrets
360º body scanning machines, x-rays and weapons and explosives detectors capable of analyzing the chemical composition of the elements transported by travelers in their luggage, as well as strict controls to correctly identify each passenger and the objects they carry, are the tools airports implemented after 9/11.
– Institutionalization of aviation security
Control of air intelligence and security, which until the attacks was carried out by private airlines, passed to public control through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). With a multimillion-dollar investment from the George Bush administration, it went from 16,200 private security guards for controls, to 72,200 by the end of 2002. More than 60,000 new federal agents were also hired to support these new procedures at the more than 400 commercial airports that operate on the United States.
– Goodbye to emotional farewells
Before September 11, it was…
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