Remembering the 9/11 attacks

Yesterday marked 23 years since the September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, in which four co-ordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda against the US.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the east coast to California.

The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and aimed the next two flights toward targets in or near Washington, DC, in an attack on the US capital. The third team succeeded in striking the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defence, in Arlington County, Virginia, and the fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania during a passenger revolt.

My knowledge of the attacks came about at approximately 9.50 am on September 11, 2001, when I received a call from a former BWIA colleague, who told me "a light aircraft" had just flown into one of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers and the event was being carried live on CNN.

I immediately went to the TTCAA’s aeronautical information services (AIS) department, where I viewed the coverage.

I saw the silhouette of a large aircraft flying into the other WTC tower. On seeing this, I immediately turned to the AIS duty supervisor and said to him: "This seems to be a lot more serious than what meets the eye."

I instructed him to issue a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) with immediate effect declaring Port of Spain, Point Lisas, Pointe-a-Pierre, Point Fortin and Galeota "no-fly zones." Chaguaramas, being a military area, was already a no-fly zone.

As details of the events unfolded, it became known that ringleader Mohamed Atta flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the WTC complex at 8.46 am.

Seventeen minutes later, at 9.03 am the WTC South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 17.

Both 110-storey skyscrapers of the WTC collapsed within an hour and 41 minutes, bringing about the destruction of the remaining five structures in the WTC complex and destroying nearby buildings. American Airlines Flight 77 flew towards Washington, DC, and crashed into the Pentagon at 9.37 am, causing a partial collapse.

The fourth and final flight, United Airlines Flight 93, also changed course towards Washington. Investigators believe the flight was intended to target either the US Capitol or the White House.

Alerted to the previous attacks, the passengers revolted against the hijackers, who then crashed the aircraft into a Stonycreek Township field, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10.03 am.

The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history.

In response, the US waged a multi-decade global war on terror to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organisations, as well as the foreign governments purported to support them, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and several other countries.

The 19 al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists who hijacked four commercial jetliners exploited weaknesses in airport security systems.

At the time, a myriad of private security companies managed air-transport security under contract to individual airlines or airports.

The terrorists easily navigated through metal detectors at four airport security checkpoints with deadly weapons in hand. This allowed the hijackers to commandeer those planes and use them as jet-fuel-filled missiles as they flew them into the twin towers and the Pentagon.

The 9/11 attacks threw the international aviation community into panic, resulting in sweeping changes in global aviation security standards and procedures.

At the 33rd Assembly of the ICAO, held in Montreal from September 25-October 5, 2001, the assembly unanimously adopted Resolution A33-1, strongly condemning the terrorist acts of 9/11 and the use of civil aircraft as weapons of destruction. The ICAO set about to immediately review and update all aviation security procedures to prevent a recurrence.

ICAO subsequently issued a new edition to its restricted aviation security manual for use by all member countries.

The new edition contained updated aviation security inspection and surveillance procedures, training standards and the specifications for software-driven X-ray machines for scanning cargo, passenger-checked baggage and carry-on baggage.

On October 8, 2001, US President George W Bush announced the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security (OHS) to co-ordinate "homeland security" efforts and to be headed by an assistant to the president for Homeland Security.

On November 25, 2002, the Homeland Security Act established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to consolidate US executive branch organisations related to "homeland security" into a single Cabinet agency.

Lawmakers, aviation stakeholders and the travelling public vociferously called for placing the federal government in charge of airport security by the creation of a single federal agency with responsibility for aviation security. Congress agreed and authorised the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which Bush signed into law on November 19, 2001.

The agency was initially placed under the US Department of Transportation, but was moved to the DHS when that department was established by congressional action.

The TSA's primary mission is airport security and the prevention of aircraft hijacking. It is responsible for screening passengers and baggage at more than 450 US airports, employing screening officers, explosives detection dogs and bomb technicians in airports, and armed federal air marshals and federal flight deck officers on US-registered aircraft.

All TSA employees are subject to a comprehensive security background check before employment, as federal employees and must undergo mandatory initial and recurrent training on aviation security procedures. The TSA periodically audits airports in all countries from which airlines operate in the US to ensure compliance with the ICAO aviation security standards pertaining to surveillance methods, equipment used and the training of screening personnel.

Globally, there continue to be ongoing threats to aviation security. Countermeasures are intelligence-driven and highly restricted to law-enforcement officials only.

Air travellers must appreciate that the removal of shoes, belts, wallets, electronic devices, restrictions on the quantities of liquid and gels, identification verification, pat-downs, full-body scans and explosives screening are necessary for their safety during flight.