Tougher Legislation

To offset such limitations, governments have responded with legislation that tightens airport security. In the United States, this requires that baggage matching, complete inspecting of cabin items, and screening of all checked baggage for explosives be implemented by the end of 2002. Cockpit doors are in the process of being strengthened and secured. Additional crisis training is provided for airline personnel. Armed sky marshals have also been deployed on commercial flights.

In the weeks and months after 9/11, passengers were frisked and luggage was hand-inspected in many airports around the world. In some instances, a secondary manual screening of passengers and carry-on items was made. Precautions of this type are already familiar to European travelers, who saw them widely implemented during the 1970's, when hijackings reached a peak. Passengers are now banned from carrying any sharp instruments on board. Only ticketed travelers are allowed past security. Many have become accustomed to longer check-in lines and the presence of armed military personnel in airport terminals.

Stress on Maintenance

Picture this all-too-familiar scene: After having waded through numerous airport checks, the passenger eventually finds himself at the gate, waiting to hear the airline agent's call for boarding. "Did you hear?" says the passenger in the gray business suit next to him. "There's a mechanical delay." He rolls his eyes and adds: "I hope they don't send us off without an engine!"

What most passengers do not realize is that aviation agencies have rigorous and painstaking inspection systems. Repair needs are anticipated through careful monitoring of the plane's mechanical log book. Such agencies require, in fact, that airplanes and their engines undergo strictly scheduled maintenance overhauls—far more frequently than the average automobile—even if the aircraft has an absolutely trouble-free record.

A maintenance officer at a major airline can testify to this. "In my nearly 15 years in this industry," he says, "I have never seen, talked to, or observed anyone who works on maintenance who did not take safety very seriously. After all, the employees' friends and families also fly on the aircraft that they work with, so they don't take foolish chances."

Personal responsibility weighs heavily upon aircraft technicians and maintenance workers. One of them recalls: "I'll never forget the night we lost a DC-10 in Sioux City, Iowa. I was working as an aircraft technician at the time, and I had the job of doing an inspection and service inside the tail assembly of the same type of aircraft. At this point, we had very little information about what had actually happened to the aircraft that was lost. I remember the intensity with which I went about my work that night, wondering, 'What happened to that aircraft? Did someone else possibly miss something that I might be able to find now and thus avert such a tragedy again? Was I doing everything exactly the way I was supposed to?' I spent a long time up in the tail that evening, looking and thinking."

Aircraft technicians are constantly given training in all areas of their work, from routine tasks to very advanced inspection and trouble-shooting skills. Crew training courses are updated yearly to cover every conceivable type of situation that could be encountered, from the mundane to the extraordinary.

After an airline tragedy, the data gathered is analyzed and entered into a simulator. Test pilots and aircraft engineers fly the simulator to see what other possible solutions they can come up with so that crews can handle similar problems better in the future. Then, a training program dealing with this is arranged for crews so that specific instruction can be given. Examinations like this also lead to aircraft and part-design changes, in the hope that such failures can prove instructive and can thus be minimized.

A maintenance worker concludes: "We are all told that 'safety does not happen by accident—it must be planned for.'"