Venture Past Security Checkpoints And Passengers example essay topic

3/29/02 Effect of 9/11/01 on Aviation September 11, 2001 is a day that will forever live in infamy inside the hearts and minds of American citizens. On that morning, the world saw live the destruction and devastation that terrorism can deliver right to our own backyard. Shocking images of the whole tragedy can still be seen on television even now, a whole six months later, yet even now it still seems unimaginable. As most Americans know, the Federal Government has implemented a huge amount of change to our foreign and domestic policies as a result of 9/11.

The most noticeable of these in our everyday lives can be seen in our nation's airports. Huge amounts of money and resources have been spent to help make sure that such a travesty will never happen again. The intent of this essay is to give examples of how these efforts have changed airport security and how they have personally changed my life as a checkpoint security screener. Immediately after the second plane struck the World Trade Center, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shut down every airport in America. It would be three days until any non-military aircraft entered the atmosphere over our country. Airports were allowed to re-open, but very stringent security guidelines were put in place.

No longer would people who accompanied passengers be allowed to venture past security checkpoints, and passengers themselves had to be subjected to many more checks. When U.S. airports resumed business, all of the flying public had to go through secondary random bag searches and hand wand metal detector searches. The FAA issued new security directives on an almost daily basis, thus changing checkpoint procedures quite often. These procedure changes ranged from the usage of passenger pat down searches to explosive tracing of shoes and laptop computers. Needless to say, not only the public but also security employees found themselves confused during the screening process. In addition to new checkpoint policies, the FAA also mandated new security guidelines for airport ticket counters and boarding gates.

After September, airline patrons found it much more difficult to board flights. One ran the risk at the ticket counter of being randomly selected for a full baggage search. This search entails the inspection of every item a passenger brings with them, including carry-on and checked baggage. The person also has an identifying mark on their ticket informing airline employees at the boarding gate to subject the person to yet another screening dilemma.

It is at this point, after the passengers have had themselves and their property searched twice (at the ticket counter and security checkpoint), do they again become subject to hand wands, pat downs, and bag searches. Only after all of these procedures have been completed is the passenger allowed to board the aircraft. Although all the checks that passengers go through may be tedious, they are not much compared to the increased workloads endured by airport employees after the terrorist attacks. This leads me to my personal explanation of how 9/11 has affected my life at work. Being a checkpoint supervisor before and after the attacks, I have seen first hand what changes have been brought to civil aviation. In the months following September, the workload at my checkpoint has increased so drastically that three extra workers have been hired for each shift just to compensate for the extra load.

The rise in labor is obviously not due to more passenger flow, but to the strict policy changes brought about by the FAA. It would not be so hard on employees if the aviation administration would stop changing guidelines and directives so much. I find it very hard to adjust perfectly to each new ten-page directive every time one is issued and I constantly find myself in a struggle between my supervisors and the screener's I am in charge of. On the topic of supervisors, before the eleventh of September I only had one, that being my manager. Now I have anywhere from three to six of them breathing down my neck at any given time.

These range from airline ground security coordinators, National Guard soldiers, airport operations officers, FAA agents, Tallahassee police officers, and the Regional Airport's director of security, to name a few. It aggravates me when some of these people, who have no idea how checkpoint procedures work, go on a power trip and try to inform me of how to run my shift. Besides the constant criticism from supervisors, my co-workers and I always have the most trouble from the people we are there to protect in the first place - the passengers. In my eighteen months of work at checkpoint, I have always had to deal with irate passengers. Actually I have found that after the terrorist attacks occurred, many passengers are more understanding of our jobs as screener's.

The new security mandates, however, have increased the duration and scrutiny we perform our searches with, which can cause people to give us even more hardship than before. At the same time we have to deal with these patrons over doing our jobs, we also have to hear from other passengers about how, according to them, we are not doing our work well enough. These people will rant and rave about how screener's do not take their jobs seriously when they have no idea of the daily turmoil we put up with. I have come to understand that checkpoint employees are in a "no win" situation, both with passengers and supervisors. Finally, many Americans understand the fact that the world has changed due to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but people do not see many changes until it directly affects their lives. The example of airport security as described in the preceding paragraphs illustrates this point.

The purpose of this essay was to show how the government has changed our nation's airports for the better since the attacks and to give my personal work example as proof of the validity of these changes. In conclusion, I believe that although it has taken the tragedy of 9/11 to help Americans realize the danger of terrorism, the government is beginning to put in place a system to ensure that it never happens the way it did on that fateful day - by airplane hi ja.