Aviation Management: Screening Process and Security Vulnerabilities

Running head: AVAITAION MANAGEMENT
Aviation Management
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Author Note

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Wilkinson and Jenkins (2013) stated that the concept of the aviation is quite old but
still it faces various types of security related challenges. In the recent times, there are various
types of security related issues concerned within the aviation industry and most of them were
terrorist attacks. This industry faces this type of security related issues due to their vulnerable
economy as there are high costs. To fight against this security related vulnerabilities the
aviation industry has implemented several types of security layers or defence layers which
includes the screening process. In this case screening is done on the flight passengers and on
their luggage. The main aim of the screening procedures is prevention of carrying the
prohibited items in the airline and the other threats to the transportation security of the
airlines (Cavusoglu et al., 2013). The procedure of the screening is considered one of the
most scrutinized security techniques in the system of aviation security. Currently the
screening process is widely accepted by the most of the airline agencies and it is one of the
most important layers in aviation security system. Jackson (2018) on the other hand depicted
that though the screening process is considered one of the most important layer in the
aviation security system the terrorists have managed to break this security systems. The main
example in this case is the terror attack in the year of 2001 where terrorists captured and used
two of the US flights to destroy the World Trade Centre. Thus this indicates aviation industry
can be used for intercontinental weapon supply and for the mass murders if the security
systems are not implemented properly.
Crimes has been committed within the aviation industry from long ago. In the present
situation this crimes in the aviation industry are nothing but terrorist activities and the US has
suffered most from these terrorist activities (Lansford, 2018). The US has been targeted in
most of the cases because of its large aviation industry and due to its global political activity.
The other high profile countries have been also targeted many times for terrorist attacks and
for that most of the cases aviation industry has been used for performing the attack. There are

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several examples of terrorist attacks including the case of 1995 in which approximately 30 or
more people died due to a bomb explosion which was in the luggage of a terrorist who acted
like the other normal passengers. Gray (2015) stated that the most brutal attack on US was
the 2001 attack where the terrorist group Al-Qaeda performed an attack by hijacking two
planes of the United States. In this attack approximately 3000 people died including the
hijackers (Gray, 2015). This incidents of the United States clearly shows how vulnerable the
aviation industry was at that moment.
Moreover, Baker (2015) conveys that, a recent statistics it has been cleared that
attacks on the aviation industry has been increased gradually with time. In the recent years
total three terror attack has been done using the airlines all over the world. Huge number of
people died due to this terror attack. With this terrorist attacks several of casualties has been
seen within the aviation industry. Due to this causalities there are also some cases regarding
the airplanes accidents which remained unsolved till today. Considering the passenger flights
the most recent addition in the unsolved airline cases is the Malaysia Airlines flight 370
which was a Boeing 777-200ER where 239 people has lost their life (LeHardy & Moore,
2014). LeHardy and Moore (2014) furthermore depicted that though this is an unsolved
mystery case it is assumed that the plane went down to the Indian Ocean at the west of
Australia. Most of this incidents state a point that there was a fault in the security checkpoint
due to which the terrorists were able to carry guns and explosives with them to the airplane.
The screening processes is very much important as it can efficiently detect, disrupt and can
defeat the plot of the attacks. In most of the cases, budget of the airline companies is very
much low regarding the security of their airplanes (Gray, 2015). Thus the screening process is
a cost efficient idea for the airline industries for effectively reducing the terror attacks.
How brutal an attack will be on the airplanes is totally depends on the access of the
pilot cabin to the terrorists or the attackers. When the terrorists will be able to access the pilot

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cabin maximum damage can be done using the airplane as the whole airplane is under the
control of terrorist group (Kammüller&Kerber, 2016). Though this matter is known to all of
the aeroplane related organizations still no additional security has been provided to the pilots
or the pilot cabin. The screening process is able to figure out threats and risks related with a
particular airplane and can stop the hijackings and bombings. The screening is able to stop
the terror attacks but it is not assured that this system will be always correct. According to
Ergün and Sönmez (2015), the screening process not able to detect the weapons which are
non-metallic in nature. Also there are specific type of plastic explosives are available which
the screening procedure is not able to detect (Ergün & Sönmez, 2015). These conditions
makes the screening process extremely vulnerable to the terror attacks. Also for an accurate
screening process advanced technologies are required. These technologies includes X-ray
machines, three dimension technologies, millimetre wave scanners and the metal detectors. In
the maximum cases screening is the solution for securing the airplane by prohibiting items
which can be harmful for the airplanes and for the passengers.
The process of the screening is started by screening of the luggage and the passengers
of the airplanes. All the airport authorities maintains a list of prohibited items and all the
items of the luggage and the passengers are checked with the list of prohibited items.
Ormerod and Dando (2015) depicted that if there any type of prohibited items found in the
luggage of the passengers, immediate actions is taken by the security personnel of airport.
Also for a proper screening process it is very much essential for the airport authorities to be
updated on the latest security threats and technologies. The responsibility for a perfect
screening evaluation of a passenger and luggage is given to the aviation security officers who
are employed by the government in most of the cases. Also in many cases these officers are
employed by some private security firms. With the technological advancements it has been
observed that the location of the actual screening process is continuously moving away from