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Backgrounder: Targets for Terrorists: Post-9/11 Aviation Security

Council on Foreign Relations

Author: Eben Kaplan, Assistant Editor
September 7, 2006

Introduction

Terrorists were targeting airliners with their attacks long before the 9/11 hijackings and the subsequent launch of the U.S. "war on terror." Despite heightened security measures, airliners remain an attractive target for terrorists, as evidenced by the revelation in August 2006 of a plot to simultaneously down as many as ten of them over the Atlantic Ocean. In order to counter the persistent and ever-changing threat of terrorism, experts say officials need to do more to ensure the safety of air travel.

Why are airliners attractive targets for terrorism?

"You get a lot of victims at once. There is a lot of bang for the buck," says Steven Simon, the former senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council. "There is a particular horror attached to transportation attacks because passengers are in effect helpless in a situation like that." In addition, the dramatic nature of airliner attacks attracts media attention and can help inspire fear in the populace, two major aims of most terrorist operations.

Yet passengers seem unfazed by the prospect of terrorist attacks on planes. Since the 9/11 attacks, the Economist reports, commercial air traffic has risen by some 30 percent.

How has aviation security changed since the 9/11 attacks?

Shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (PDF), which created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and mandated that federal employees be in charge of airport security screening. The TSA has implemented more thorough screening procedures for passengers and their baggage, whereby passengers go through metal detectors, carry-on bags are x-rayed, and checked baggage passes through an explosive detection system.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.