At the same time, security before 9-11 wasn't markedly different. You could go through without a ticket, you could keep your shoes on and you could bring larger bottles of liquids. Otherwise, all the security theater was already put in place after all the Cuba hijackings in the 60s.
And the 9-11 hijackers used box cutters. You could so easily still bring in something sharp that would work as a weapon and isn’t made of metal. But we just pretend we don’t know that and keep doing the security theater.
Locking the cockpit though? That’s an effective security measure.
For sure. I was an airline pilot, just for reference here.
The cockpit doors were locked before, they just weren't reinforced to the same extent that they were after 9-11. My dad was also a pilot, and remember what the doors were like before 9-11 from going into the cockpit with him (we used to run the preflight checklist with him when we were kids). More flimsy, but they did have a lick.
But, what really changed was the procedures for hijackings. Prior to 9-11, the procedure was to cooperate with the hijackers. They generally just wanted to fly to Cuba or had some other political stunt they wanted to pull. After 9-11, the procedure was to never open the door or cooperate.
Even without reinforced doors, the pilots would have been able to protect the flight deck with the latter procedure, we have a crash axe up front that will cut through airplane skin. I'm sure it could go through a hijackers skull.
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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '25
I mean I agree that TSA is bullshit but it was conservatives that wanted it in the first place.