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Article overview Short FAQ of aviation facts regarding air rage and terrorism. Originally published in September 2001.	this is a hijack: the f.a.q. by Sergio Ortega it's horror and chaos when those four words are heard... ollowing the multiple hijacks of September 11, 2001, which resulted in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, this small article was written in order to clarify some aviation facts to people. You may find the definition of all pertinent aviation terms (*) in our glossary. How can the Captain advise air traffic control that he no longer is in command of the aircraft? In other words, how can the people on the ground be advised that a flight is hijacked? There is a communications device called a transponder* onboard every civilian aircraft. This can be tuned to a 4-digit frequency called the "squawk". According to the frequency tuned, a secondary surveillance radar* is able to identify the aircraft immediately by airline, flight number, altitude, heading, airspeed. There are a few emergency squawk codes and one of them is 7500. If a pilot tunes 7500 on his transponder, the controls on the ground are advised immediately and ask the pilot to confirm he/she is squawking 7500. If the pilot confirms or does not deny, the authorities are advised immediately of the situation ongoing. Verbal confirmation, when possible, is also used to advise air traffic control that a plane is hijacked. There are several incidents in which pilots, mostly general aviation pilots, have mistakenly tuned one of the emergency codes while switching frequencies, and were surprised to have their aircraft surrounded by police cars and FBI agents on landing. Is it true that locking the doors of an aircraft is not mandatory in Canada? Why? No, and that is, effective September 17, 2001, following an announcement by Canadian Transportation Minister David Collenette. Flight deck doors on Canadian airline passenger flights are to be kept locked throughout the duration of the flight now. Formerly, it was not mandatory. It is interesting to notice that, effective February 14, 2001, Collenette announced it would become mandatory for Canadian airline pilots to be warned immediately when a passenger becomes increasingly dangerous aboard an airborne aircraft and to lock the flight deck door immediately. Amazingly, this announcement came out exactly one week after a troubling news program on air rage was broadcast on Canadian television (the fifth estate, CBC, February 7, 2001). This program featured extensive coverage of "recent" air rage incidents, including the one on December 29, 2000, which nearly caused British Airways flight BA2069 to crash enroute to Nairobi. In the past, the author of this article had himself visited the flight deck of an airborne Canadian aircraft two times, with no problems at all. One visit was however declined. After all, it is at the discretion of the Captain... even in the United States, where keeping the flight deck door locked inflight is mandatory since many years. Will curbside bagage check-in be eliminated permanently from the United States? Has such a measure ever been tested in Canada? Curbside bagage check-in, a once useful practise eliminating the need to carry piles of heavy luggage from a car to the terminal, was banned in the United States following the September 11 attacks. However, some airlines are starting to offer this service again at select airports. In addition to this measure, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the following additional security measures shortly after the attacks: "There will be thorough searches of all airports and airplanes before passengers are allowed to enter and board aircraft. "Checking bags at off-airport sites is prohibited. You may still use these sites to obtain boarding passes and seat assignments. "Passengers should go to the ticket counters to check in. "Only ticketed passengers will be allowed through the security checkpoints. "Vehicles parked near the airport will be closely monitored. "You may notice additional uniformed law enforcement officers and FAA canine teams patrolling the airport." In Canada, the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency announced in April 2000 a project to allow "frequent, low-risk" passengers to transit ground customs or airport customs more quickly and efficiently, including CANPASS and Expedited Passenger Processing System (EPPS), is most likely to be abandoned. Also, in Canada, there is no curbside bagage check-in neither at all and there never was. Has El Al ever experienced a single successful hijack? Why is it considered a model of airline safety against terrorism? El Al Israel Airlines, whose name means "Skyward", or "To The Most High" (quote from the Hosea book of the Old Testament) experienced only one hijack in 1968 by three terrorists. Since then, El Al enjoyed a 33-year-old reputation of being the least likely airline to be hijacked, thanks to anti-terrorism measures. Such measures are believed to be: proceeding to a criminal background check of every passenger, with the help of Interpol. asking its passengers to check-in 3 hours prior to departure, submitting them to rigourous physical checks and interrogatories before departure, particularly on suspicious passengers. systematically scanning all checked luggage with state-of-the-art explosives detection systems. placing all cargo in a decompression chamber before takeoff. This procedure is intended to detect any bombs connected to barometric devices, which are triggered by altitude changes. maintaining a very strict "anti-hijack" procedure regarding flight deck doors. The Captain locks the door as soon as he gets onboard the aircraft. placing undercover, armed security guards on all its flights. applying all these procedures to every airport it flies. If El Al judges an airport in its network to go below its rigourous safety standards, it simply stops flying there, just like if that airport failed to generate enough revenue Why all these measures? Because since its existence, Israel is known as a potential target for numerous terrorist attacks. This nation is taking no risks at all. If you ever want to fly and have virtually no chances of being hijacked, you can fly El Al... as long as you are willing to transit in Tel-Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport! Are there any cases of airlines going out of business or being severely wounded after a terrorist or criminal action? Unfortunately, yes. Like in any case of destruction of aircraft and passenger casualties, the consequences for the airline involved are devastating, and its effects are multiplied when it becomes obvious the accident was in fact a premeditated action. Air Botswana's loss of its entire fleet of three ATR-42 aircraft occured on October 11, 1999, after one of its pilots crashed one of the planes into the two others while they were on the tarmac of Gaborone Airport. Pan American World Airways lost, like many US airlines, a large number of passengers in the trans-Atlantic runs following the bombing of flight PA103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988. While not being directly the cause of this disaster, the bombing was a hard hit on the airline's already dangerous financial situation at the time, and eventually folded in 1991. (Another airline called Pan Am, using the same logo, bought Carnival Airlines and later stopped flying. A third Pan Am is currently flying limited operations.). Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Midway Airlines announced it would suspend all flight operations not only for the duration of the FAA's ban... but permanently, forecasting a freefall of passenger numbers in the United States following the multiple attacks. It later re-started regional operations as a USAirways Express carrier, but stopped flying permanently in August 2003. One unsuccessful attempt to ruin an airline with a hijack occured on April 7, 1994. Auburn Calloway, off-duty Flight Engineer, attacked the flight crew of Federal Express flight FDX705 with a hammer, and it is believed he was attempting to take control of the aircraft in order to crash it into FedEx's headquarters in Memphis. The injured flight crew members tried to restrain Calloway, and incredibly managed to safely land the DC-10 back to Memphis. What are the most dangerous airports or airlines in the United States? And in the world? It is not a matter of spotting which airport is most likely to be the departure point of a hijacked aircraft or which airline is most likely to have a safety violation dangerous enough to have a bomb being smuggled onboard. It is simply, in the author's opinion, to have enough wisdom to consider such unfortunate events occur when a number of violations occur at the same time, at the same place, leaving the door open to the least appreciated passengers on a civilian aircraft. The odds are way lower than winning the lottery. And in reply to which airport or which airline is most dangerous, I strongly suggest not to try to make a forecast of what will be the next airline, city, or aircraft type involved in the next incident. Instead, make your own careful conclusions by looking at previous statistics. Is the airport or airline which experienced the most acts of terrorism necessarily the most dangerous? You decide. Shall you have other questions regarding aspects of aviation, you can always contact the author. Back to the article "This is a hijack!"
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