WASHINGTON - Passengers should be able to count on TSA and local and state law enforcement authorities to protect them. The principal lessons from Lockerbie, the 9/11 attacks, and the Brussels, Istanbul and now Fort Lauderdale airport massacres are that air transportation continues to be a prime target for terrorism and mass murder.
Airports are now clearly the No. 1 soft target, and are naked and totally unprotected. No act of terrorism and mass murder in history has not been repeated without effective defensive measures in place.
FlyersRights.org has called for TSA and Congress to provide for stronger airport security after a shooting attack at LAX airport in 2013, and again July 2016 after the Brussels and Istanbul airport massacres, but nothing was done.
Now emergency measures must be imposed to prevent more lives are lost and the paralysis of US air transportation system as occurred after 9/11 terrorist attacks. This includes:
- Calling out the National Guard for temporary armed airport security.
- Installing airport perimeter security to detect weapons and explosives on persons entering major airports.
- Banning the carrying of live ammunition in checked baggage.
- Increasing canine patrols to detect explosives.
- Placing anyone who is deemed a security threat by a law enforcement agency on the TSA Watch or No Fly list, but with due process means for removed from such lists.
Paul Hudson, president of FlyersRights.org, former member of the TSA Aviation Security Advisory Committee and father of a Lockerbie victim, noted, "Those victims at Ft. Lauderdale should not have died, and should certainly not have died in vain. Blood on the ground is unfortunately far too often the price for government officials and airline executives to act."
"Most passengers were shocked to learn carrying live ammo and guns in baggage is permitted. And now terrorists are fully aware of this startling gap in US airport security."
FlyersRights.org previously supported the application of the Whistle Blower statute to TSA and Homeland Security Dept. in a successful amicus brief to the US Supreme Court in (MacLean v Dept. of Homeland Security) in 2014, and successfully opposed the reintroduction of knives in planes in 2013 by the TSA.
