WASHINGTON – The terrorists who crashed planes into the Pentagon and
World Trade Center probably were able to overcome the flight crews and then fly
the airliners themselves, aviation safety experts suggested.
"It's just incredible that you have these four apparent breaches of
security," Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House aviation subcommittee,
said following Tuesday's attacks.
"We've seen from today that a determined terrorist isn't going to be stopped
by a metal detector and a couple of quick questions about who packed their
luggage," he said.
Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta promised immediate efforts to step
up security.
"Travelers will see increased security measures at our airports, train
stations and other key sites," Mineta said in a statement.
"There will be higher levels of surveillance, more stringent searches.
Airport curbside luggage check-in will no longer be allowed. There will be more
security officers, random identification checks," he said.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said American Airlines Flight 11 that left
Boston for Los Angeles "was hijacked by suspects armed with knives."
Television commentator Barbara Olson told her husband by cellular telephone
minutes before her flight crashed into the Pentagon that attackers had used
knifelike instruments to take over the plane.
Current airport security systems are designed to catch people carrying metal
weapons such as guns and knives, said David Stempler of the Air Travelers
Association. And in recent years, much effort also has been expended on
developing devices to sniff out bombs.
Darryl Jenkins, director of George Washington University's Aviation
Institute, agreed that the easiest way to hijack a plane is to board it without
weapons.
"One thing about terrorists is just how flexible they are," Jenkins said.
"When you put up a roadblock in one place, they go around and find other means.
"I'm a pilot, he added. "None of us would ever fly a plane into the Trade
Center. We would take that bullet first. Terrorists flew the plane instead."
That view was shared by Jim Burnett, a former chairman of the National
Transportation Safety Board, who said a commercial pilot, "even under duress,
would not do that. It would have taken some skill on the part of whoever was
able to take over the plane."
Gene Poteat, president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers,
added: "They flew the planes themselves. No pilot, even with a gun to his head,
is going to fly into the World Towers."
Stempler said the possibility of terrorists actually taking over planes and
then flying them into targets is not one that he had ever heard discussed.
A radar track of American Airlines Flight 11 that struck the World Trade
Center showed that it left Boston en route to Los Angeles and began its path
westward normally, but then made a sharp left turn to fly down the Hudson River
to New York.
It was not known whether the pilot reported a hijacking. Even if a terrorist
were known to be in control of a plane heading for a major city, coping would
pose a huge challenge, Stempler said.
"I don't think we are that primed and ready at this point. I don't think we
could get the interceptors up fast enough to manage that," he said.
Burnett said criminal investigations will be launched quickly to see whether
there is a common thread in the apparent breaches of security that allowed
terrorists aboard the planes.
If there is, it is likely to be plugged quickly, he said. "However, I think
it's safe to say that with the level of sophistication, there may be additional
types of breaches that have been identified."
Burnett said these terrorist acts will likely spur intense security and there
could be substantial disruption of transportation for a time.
"The American people are going to have to be prepared to be patient and to
have a level of unity, the kind of unity they had after Dec. 7, 1941," he said,
referring to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Poteat said the hijackings will lead to much tighter security on planes,
including the possibility of putting armed marshals on planes again.
Armed marshals were used on planes a few decades ago after a series of
hijackings to Cuba.
"The measures to protect ourselves are extremely expensive," Poteat said.
"It's going to restrict our way of life, our travel."
Kathleen Flynn, who lost her son in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 said: "How in God's name were they able to hijack
that many aircraft? Where was the security? I really want to know. It's going to
change how America lives, we can never become this vulnerable again."
AP-WS-09-12-01 0843EDT