Aviation Security Term Paper

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 910 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 3

Page 1 of 3

Aviation Security

Keeping passengers safe on their flights involves more than just making sure the aircraft in use is fully functional and operationally fit. Aviation security involves keeping dangerous people from becoming passengers, and that entails security checks during the boarding process, and more. This paper points to the steps that government officials and airline management must take to ensure the safety and security of private and commercial air travel.

National Strategy for Aviation Security

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created following the attacks on the United States (the World Trade Center and Pentagon were hit with hijacked commercial airliners, due to flaws in security checkpoints), has ultimate responsibility for aviation security and safety in America. The DHS published a document entitled "The National Strategy for Aviation Security" in 2007, and within that document readers find the basic theories and strategies for keeping the airways safe and keeping passengers secure from the time they take off until they have de-boarded their flights. The publication asserts that aviation security can be best achieved by "…integrating public and private aviation security global activities" into a "coordinated effort to detect, deter, prevent, and defeat threats to the Air Domain" (DHS, p. 2).

Also, achieving security entails reducing "vulnerabilities" -- such as existed when the Islamic terrorists got plastic knives through security -- and also in entails minimizing the "consequences of, and expediting the recovery from, attacks that might occur" (DHS, 2). So, what strategies do DHS officials suggest that can achieve aviation security?

The authors of the publication assert that some of the measures already taken include: a) a federalized Transportation Security Officer workforce that "…screens passengers and baggage traveling on passenger aircraft"; b) "hardened doors to prevent unauthorized access to the flight deck"; c) air marshals on the federal payroll that fly "anonymously on commercial passenger aircraft" providing an armed law enforcement presence on some flights; d) "enhanced explosives and threat detection technology" that has been established in "hundreds of airports"; e) newly developed air traffic management security measures; and f) a "cadre of canine explosives detection teams screen baggage, cargo, and increasingly, carry-on items" (DHS, 6).

Understanding the threats to aviation safety is an important first step -- beyond making sure passengers are thoroughly checked before boarding -- and the DHS describes the threats as threefold: terrorist groups; hostile nation-states; and "other criminals" (8).

Stuck Writing Your "Aviation Security" Term Paper?

View All Our Example Aviation Security Term Paper

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

Terrorist groups are quite well understood and defined, but what nation-states are hostile and potentially capable of attacking aviation?

The DHS explains that some nation-states "provide training, funding, supplies…and operational direction to surrogates" that have terrorism on their agenda. Other nation-states "knowingly or unknowingly provide safe havens for terrorists" who are planning to attack the U.S. through aviation (9).….....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


Related Essays

Analyzing Two Global Security Organizations

training (RAST) support for government agencies and private industries. TAL Global offers airport and aviation security, emergency preparedness planning, executive protection, risk management, school safety and security, and a range of other security services within their organizational rubric. These two organizations have similar leadership structures, dividing their different duties into different departments, each with its own organizational sub-structures. Working within the laws and jurisdictions of any client context, TAL Global and the Wexford Group are responsible for balancing security requirements with the need for human liberties and the protections of human rights. Leadership Structures, Jurisdictions, and Methods A wholly owned subsidiary of the esteemed… Continue Reading...

sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Aviation Security" (2011, December 28) Retrieved June 29, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/aviation-security-48700

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Aviation Security" 28 December 2011. Web.29 June. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/aviation-security-48700>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Aviation Security", 28 December 2011, Accessed.29 June. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/aviation-security-48700
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example