CNN posed the following question today: “If a teen carrying nothing but a comb can do it, who else could breach airport security and hop aboard the bottom of a plane?”
In October the question might have looked like this: “If a 9-year-old boy can hop a plane without a ticket, who else can breach security and board a plane without being checked by TSA?”
While no security system is 100 percent failsafe, there are clearly some security issues at today’s airports. And kids are finding ways to breach them.
The TSA keeps an eye on security inside, while local and airport police patrol the outside. But the stowaway teen, shows just how easy it is to stowaway on a plane—though for the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would want to do so.
Aviation security experts told ABC News that San Jose International Airport isn’t alone when it comes to security weaknesses on the airfield. The news source reported that some larger airports have invested heavily in technology to detect intruders while other airports rely on systems plagued by false alarms or providing little or no useful information.
But here’s the thing. We can have all the data in the world coming in, but if no one is monitoring it, it’s meaningless. San Jose’s security cameras recorded the teen on the tarmac, but no one noticed this fact until after he survived the flight and showed up on the tarmac in Maui.
There is sophisticated technology available that can detect breaches in security around an airport’s perimeter, and even track the trespasser with radar while automatically alerting authorities. But even those systems come with their share of problems, including information overload and false alarms.
Whatever the issues, securing the perimeter is something airports ought to study further. When even a child can circumvent the security, there’s clearly need for improvement.
