“I t’s by sheer dumb luck that someone didn’t pull this off in the USA, especially when the ineptitude of the TSA forces 1,000+ people to stand for hours in queues”, opined FlyerTalk member KRSW pertaining to the recent attack at Istanbul Atatürk Airport in Turkey. “I fear it’s only a matter of time before we see a similar attack at a US airport.”
Why Airport Security Checkpoint Lines Should Be Short and Quick For Everybody
The latest updates from multiple sources indicate that there have been 42 fatalities and 239 injuries as a result of three suicide bombers who first shot as many people as possible before detonating themselves at Istanbul Atatürk Airport — which was temporarily closed and all flight operations halted — but a key factor is where those bombs were detonated.
The first bomb was detonated in the Arrivals area on the ground floor of the international terminal of the airport. The second bomb exploded on the first floor at the entrance to the Departures area. The third bomb blasted in the parking lot just outside of the international terminal.
All three bombings occurred relatively close in proximity to each other; and all happened prior to the security checkpoint at landside.
The lengthy lines which snaked for hours at airports across the United States in recent months were all obviously located prior to the security checkpoints — causing one to wonder: what if suicide bombers decided to target only one of those airports? How many people would be “sitting ducks” at the behest of terrorists determined to carry out an agenda?
Summary
Missed flights by passengers due to long lines at airport security checkpoints is unacceptable, resulting in lost time and money in general — as who knows how many millions of dollars and man hours in lost productivity are due to the inefficient policies and systems of the Transportation Security Administration.
My belief is stronger that ever that all lanes of an airport security checkpoint should operate similarly to the Pre✓ program from the Transportation Security Administration — perhaps with the exception of one or two lanes reserved for neophytes of air travel, where friendly agents will assist to ensure that those passengers are processed with as little anxiety as possible — and the time is long overdue where passengers should not have to pay extra money for the privilege of being processed as quickly as possible, as they already pay through taxes charged on their airline tickets. Simplify the rules and policies without sacrificing security in terms of processing passengers at airport security checkpoints.
If that will not work, then perhaps consider my proposal for four different types of lanes at airport security checkpoints in the United States.
Follow those simple common-sense recommendations, and more agents of the Transportation Security Administration do not need to be hired while passengers simultaneously spend significantly less time at airport security checkpoints — all without costing extra money…
…especially as the safety of innocent people could be on the line. Get them beyond the security checkpoint at airports as quickly as possible to mitigate the threat of being maimed or killed by some suicide bomber who has no respect for life or for his or her fellow human beings.
Source: Istanbul Atatürk Airport.
