The Evolution of Airport Security: A Historical Overview

The evolution of airport security would evolve over time just as airline safety. There would be a series of unfortunate events that would affect the way all airports operated. Prior to these events passengers would simply show up with their luggage and ticket and get on the plane, no screening or baggage checks were conducted. The FAA and the Federal Government had taken many steps by passing numerous pieces of legislation to address aircraft safety to reduce the number of accidents; however aircraft security was never addressed in all previously passed legislation. As the number of air travelers increased year by year, so did the potential for crimes against the airlines. These crimes included aircraft bombing and hijackings.

November 1,

1955, United Airlines Flight 629, bound to Denver-Portland, exploded and burned in flight near Longmont, Colorado, a few minutes after takeoff, with the loss of all 44 on board A United Airlines plane explodes after takeoff in Denver, killing all 44 aboard (Murphy, 1986).

The investigation led to the arrest of a man that placed a bomb in his mothers’ luggage and was the beneficiary of his mother’s life insurance policy. Another inflight bombing would occur in 1960 where a National Airline’s flight exploded killing all 34 people on board and again in 1962 where a Continental Airline’s flight exploded killing 45 people on board. The increase and frequency of these bombings did not bring a significant change in the screening of passengers and their luggage it would take another fourteen years before the FAA under the control of the Federal Government to pass legislation that allowed for the screening of all passengers and their luggage. The central point that drove the 1974 Air Transportation Security Act was a combination of aircraft bombings and the start of aircraft hijackings. One of the first United States incidents involving a hijacked aircraft took place in Portland, Oregon on a scheduled route to Seattle, Washington in 1971. A man identified only as D.B. Cooper quietly took over control of a TWA Boeing 727 aircraft once it was airborne. He indicated to a flight attendant that he had a bomb in his briefcase and he intended to detonate if his demands were not met. The plane landed safely in Seattle and

the ransom was delivered, the plane refueled and took off again with instructions from D. B. Copper. Sometime during the flight the hijacker lowered the back aircraft ramp and bailed out with the ransom money. To combat the threat of hijacking President Nixon ordered “sky marshals” to be on designated flights. There were not enough of these select individuals to put on every flight so the hijackings continued. As a deterrent to hijackers and the possibility of inflight bombings, the FAA ordered all airlines to initiate the process of screening all passengers and their carry-on luggage. This process began on January 5, 1973. The screening process would be performed by private security companies which were required to bid for these contracts. The lowest priced contract in most cases won the contract. The one drawback to this new screening process was that oversight would be held by the FAA. C.F.R. Title 14 restrictions did not permit a relevant airport authority to exercise any oversight over checkpoint operations. The Federal Government would finalize these actions by passing the 1974 Air Transportation Security Act.
This Act Directs the Administrator to, by regulation, require any air carrier to refuse to transport: (1) any person who does not consent to a search of his person; or (2) any property of any person who does not consent to a search or inspection of such property to determine whether it unlawfully contains a dangerous weapon, explosive, or other destructive substance (Thomas.loc.gov, 2015).
This would allow airlines to subject passengers to practical rules and regulations approved by the Administrator, any such airline may also reject transportation of a passenger or property when, in the opinion of the airline, such transportation would or might be hostile to safety of flight.

This legislation mandated airports to implement the use of metal-detection screening portals for passengers and X-ray inspection systems for carry-on bags. The main focus was to deter and or eliminate future hijackings and aircraft bombings. The main recurring problem the FAA and the Federal Government had up until this point was that all legislation and regulations were reactionary based on events that had already

happened.