The Impact of Terrorism on Aviation Security: A Look at 9/11 and its Aftermath

AVIATION
MANAGEMENT

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An act of terrorism that shaped the aviation security
Terrorism has taken deep roots in the society and it has affected almost all the industry in its
performance but Aviation Industry has been highly targeted by the terrorists in the past.
Aviation is an industry that has higher political impact as it is one of the biggest supporters of
globalisation. This has raised the concerns related to aviation security (Stewart & Mueller,
2014). There has been a long history of terrorist activities where they hijacked airplanes so as
to blackmail the government and fulfil their demands. Sometimes they have exploded the
airplanes so as to create fear in the minds of people. 9/11 was a terrorist incident that shocked
the world and it is one of the biggest terrorist activities that happened throughout the world
(Bhattacharya & Mainiero, 2009). There was a long term planning of the terrorist group Al-
Qaeda which made this activity to happen. After researches showed that there were many
structural and procedural defaults present in the aviation security that led to the event of 9/11.
Prior to this event, terrorism was considered to be as the regional problem and the developed
nations were highly ensured that nothing such could happen to them. After this incident
companies understood that there is a dire need of improving the aviation security.
There is no universally accepted definition of terrorism. Different researchers have given
different definitions of terrorism. Most of the definitions states terrorism as an unlawful use
of intimidation and violence against the civilians so as to achieve some kind of political
goals. While the definition of security states that it is a measure that is taken by the
individuals, governments or organisations so as to protect and safeguard everyone from any
kind of threat. It is also understood to be as the state of being free from any type of fear or
threat (Fox, 2014).
The major reason for choosing the aviation industry for any kind of terrorist attack is that it
creates a bigger political statement than anything thing else. It creates fear that is
unmatchable. Being a powerful tool in the political diaspora, it attracts terrorists so as to
make it a target. After 9/11 incident people in different parts of the world stopped travelling
from planes. It was the fear that was created by this attack. For stabilising the aviation

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industry, American government had to put $4.6 billion in the industry. The attack created
more buzz as it was an attack on one of the biggest super powers in world both economically
and politically. This attack was done on the United States by the Islamic group named Al-
Qaeda. It killed approximately 3000 people and other 6000 were injured due to this attack
(Goll & Rasheed, 2011). The economic damage that is created by this attack was approx. $10
billion. For conducting these attack four passenger airlines of the two big companies (United
Airlines and American Airlines) from United States were used. Both these planes were
hijacked shortly after they took their flight. Two of the aircrafts named American Airlines
Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were intentionally crashed in the north and south
buildings of World Trade centre complex which after the crash collapsed in just few hours.
Another plane American Airlines Flight 77 was crashed in Pentagon. Last the fourth plane,
United Airlines Flight 93 took the route towards Washington D.C. but crashed in the field in
Stonycreek Township near Shanks Ville, Pennsylvania.
After the attack numerous initiatives and investments were taken by both the players of the
industry and the government in different parts of the world so as to enhance the airport
security. Higher level security check points were created along with the help of different
types of technologies (Peterson, 2016). These technologies were capable of doing the full
body scan of the people and their luggage. Major improvements were done in the domestic
airports apart from the improvements in the international airports. Prior to this attack
domestic airport were not so much under guidelines. Heavy need of advanced technologies
was understood from the side of the aviation so as to strengthen the security at the airports.
Machine readable documents started to get in use. A person who has any kind of criminal
records is not given Visa. The full body scan was needed at the airports which were
previously not installed as it was considered to be against the privacy of the individuals and
was considered as the breach of the civil liberties. After the incident took place civil liberty
was weakened in the case of security reasons (Rodrigues, Cusick & Cusick, 2012). Some of
the pilots have been given training about the use of weapons so that they protect themselves
in case of emergency.
Security changes have also been done in terms of the fact that security within the plane has
also been increased. Prior to 9/11, people had easy access to the cockpits and hence plane
hijacking was easy. After the incidents changes were done in the cockpit doors so that once it
is locked nobody could enter into cockpit (Schóber, Koblen & Szabo, 2012). There was
heavy pilot training given to the terrorists for conducting 9/11 attack and no security agencies