security, maybe not even the most pressing problem. Much emphasis has been placed in this area, and rightfully so, but it should not be at the expense of other concerns. After all, the acts of September 11th would not have been prevented with better luggage screening for explosives. It is widely speculated that the highjackers of September 11th, carried their weapons (knives or box cutters) on board their persons or in their hand-carried baggage. This opens at least three additional areas that need improvement: cockpit security/reinforcement, checkpoint security/screeners, and passenger identification/screening.Cockpit security/reinforcement has already begun, but the security bar being installed in aircraft today, will stop only the disgruntled passenger. A trained and prepared terrorist could easily gain entrance to an aircrafts cockpit either by brute force or by coaxing the pilot/copilot. A better method of securing the cockpits needs to be instituted. The double security doors employed by Israel's national carrier, El Al, (Dunn, R, 2001) should be the model used to emulate. This, coupled with a security camera in the isolation area between the double doors, would provide far superior protection. Although protection of the cockpit is the quickest and probably the cheapest area for improvement, it cannot be expected that this alone would have prevented the World Trade Center catastrophe. Other areas of security were also deficient.How could have security personnel had detected the box cutters or knives prior to the terrorists boarding their respective aircraft? Better scanning equipment seems to be the overwhelming first answer to this question. Along with better scanning equipment must also come fully trained employees operating this equipment. This, in its self, is a multi-faceted problem that has been growing for years and requires more than just a new law or two. Government investigations have repeatedly pointed to security ...
