It's become a rite of passage, literally, for anyone who travels by airplane. You pass through a doorframe-like metal detector that beeps when loose change dares to pass beneath it. You place your carefully packed belongings onto an ominous conveyer belt that draws the bags into a dark netherworld to be X-rayed and inspected. But there was a time, only thirty years ago, when passengers could walk straight from the ticket counter to the tarmac and onto the plane without being stopped. As Annie Wu reports from Washington, airport security has evolved as the dangers in society have grown.
- Following the recent announcement, PropStrike Studio has released its Cessna 172 bush kit for X-Plane. The aircraft was developed after a meeting with bush pilot Ken Myles inspired them to recreate a bush aircraft for X-Plane. The Cessna 172 is a four-seat single engine aircraft produced by Cessna and now Textron Aviation.
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The History of Airport Security
by Annie Wu
by Annie Wu
Apr 15, 1972 Directed by Christian Nyby. With Robert Fuller, Julie London, Bobby Troup, Randolph Mantooth. At the hospital, John and Roy bring in a football player who was a hard tackler.
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The plane had just taken off from Portland when a dark haired man handed a note to the stewardess. He demanded $200,000 or else he'd blow up the plane with the explosives in his bag. The airline agreed to hand over the money. Then, the man who'd purchased a ticket under the name Dan Cooper lowered the stairs at the back of the plane and parachuted down, along with his loot, into the stormy darkness. He's never been found. But his story has become a folk legend, inspiring a movie and a Waylon Jennings song.
Jennings: 'I like livin' easy, I like bein' free / Livin' free & easy brings out the best in me / Makes me shine Shine shine shine, makes me shine / With a little luck & a greenback dollar / You're gonna see me shine..'
Following the infamous D.B. Cooper skyjacking in 1971, aircraft makers created a device called a 'Cooper Vane', that made it impossible to lower the rear stairs during flight. That's just one of many changes mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration over the years in response to increasing security problems. A year earlier, for example, in September 1970, Palestinians threatened to destroy four hijacked airplanes, two of them American.
In response, President Nixon put 'sky marshals' on select flights to deter hijackers. David Leach was one of the first sky marshals. He says back then, commercial flying was still a novelty.
Leach: 'And a lot of people were fascinated with the fact that there was a lavatory onboard an airplane. In those days, the lavatory was at the front of the airplane adjacent to the cockpit door. And these people would walk down the aisle; they'd grab the cockpit door and start shaking it. And my partner and I, we'd put our hands on our guns and look at each other and say, 'Oh no. Don't tell me this is it. This is it. The guy's trying to get into the cockpit.' And then they'd inevitably see the sign 'Lavatory,' go in there, and we'd just kind of sit back and say, 'Wow.'
But sky marshals couldn't ride on every flight, and the hijackings didn't end. So in December 1972, the FAA gave the airlines one month to begin searching all passengers and their bags. Dennis O'Madigan, then Director of Security for Piedmont Airlines, says metal detectors known as magnetometers were rigged up from a device originally used by loggers.
O'Madigan: 'If the metal remained in the log and the saw hit the metal, the saw was severely damaged and brought a halt to the sawing of the lumber. And so they came up with this device. And we simply took it and turned it into the magnetometers.'
Some passengers found themselves stumbling through the new metal detectors, says David Leach who's now with the FAA's Security Office.
Leach: 'Some of them were like tunnels, like 4 or 5 ft long, and they had to walk up a little ramp and down a little ramp. And we used to watch people fall into them and watch people fall out of them. It was really strange.'
Leach also remembers that consumer advocates worried the metal detectors could be dangerous, until a study determined they gave off less radiation than a luminous dial on a watch. Instead, Leach says, the more critical question that took the FAA to court was whether the machines violated the Fourth Amendment, the protection against illegal searches and seizures.
Leach: 'The courts, very fortunately for us and for the traveling public, made the determination that yes, it was a violation of the fourth amendment, but it was acceptable to the courts with two provisos. One, that it be applied universally so there's no chance of any discrimination, and two, that the search be limited to looking for weapons and explosives.'
The policy of universal searches added on top of the hijackings and bombings changed the tenor of air travel forever, says Dennis O'Madigan with Piedmont Airlines.
O'Madigan: 'Many people considered the airlines to be kind of romantic. The meal service was good. People dressed in suits or in dresses. So now that people realized they were going to have to submit themselves and their bags and anything else they brought on the plane to search, that did not enhance the early 60's romantic approach that the passenger had when they boarded an airplane.'
The next big wave of security measures came more than 15 years later. Just before Christmas 1988, a bomb onboard Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland killed 270 people. In response, the FAA began to screen portable computers and radios more carefully on flights from Europe and the Middle East. It also required that only bags accompanied by a passenger may board a plane. Still, it's not easy to protect a thin aluminum aircraft flying at 30,000 feet, says Irish Flynn with the FAA.
Flynn: 'And into those aircraft go hundreds of millions of people every year. And billions of objects go into those aircraft. And our challenge is to ensure that things that are dangerous, lethally dangerous, don't go aboard those aircraft.'
Until recently, the FAA has usually taken steps to improve air safety as a reaction to a hijacking or a bombing. Today, the government says it's planning ahead, for example, developing ways for airlines to deal with hijackers armed with chemical or biological weapons. In the meantime, the FAA hopes that passengers will be tolerant of airport security measures. Because while it may be the hundredth time you've heard the question, 'Has anyone unknown to you asked you to carry an item on this flight?', the FAA reminds you that they're just trying to provide security in a dangerous world. From Washington, I'm Annie Wu for The Savvy Traveler.
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An Alitalia Douglas DC-8-43 similar to the one of Flight 112 | |
Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 5 May 1972 |
Summary | Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error |
Site | Mount Longa, near Palermo, Italy |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Douglas DC-8-43 |
Operator | Alitalia |
Registration | I-DIWB |
Flight origin | Fiumicino – Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (IATA: FCO, ICAO: LIRF), Rome, Italy |
Destination | Falcone–Borsellino Airport (IATA: PMO, ICAO: LICJ), Palermo, Italy |
Occupants | 115 |
Passengers | 108 |
Crew | 7 |
Fatalities | 115 |
Survivors | 0 |
Alitalia Flight 112 was a scheduled flight from Leonardo da Vinci Airport, in Rome, Italy, to Palermo International Airport in Palermo, Italy, with 115 on board. On 5 May 1972, it crashed into Mount Longa, about 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Palermo while on approach to the airport. Investigators believe that the crew had 3 miles visibility and did not adhere to the established vectors issued by air traffic control. It remains the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy, and the second-deadliest behind the Linate Airport disaster in 2001. The incident is the worst in Alitalia's history. Twitch doigby.
A memorial has been erected at the site of the crash.
The accident[edit]
On 5 May 1972, the aircraft I-DIWB of Alitalia (a Douglas DC-8-43) started the flight AZ 112 from Rome to Palermo, taking off 36 minutes late. Captain Roberto Bartoli was in charge of the radio assistance, while First Officer Bruno Dini flew the aircraft. The times and locations have been precisely recovered from the recorder of Rome Control, which had a time recorder, while Palermo Approach did not.
The flight AZ 112 contacted Palermo Approach around 9:10 PM stating to be at 74 nautical miles (137 km) from VOR (which is installed on Mount Gradara, above the municipality of Borgetto, with a frequency of 112.3 MHz, around 10 miles (16 km) south of the airport of Punta Raisi).
Around 10:23–24 PM, the aircraft (coming from Ponente-lato Terrasini) hit a crest 935 meters (1,980 feet) high,[1] about 300 feet (91 m) below the top of the mountain, and slid for a long time on the ground with its wings, its fuselage, and its four engines, until it disintegrated in the successive hits against the rocks of the crest. Part of the debris and bodies of the victims rolled on the mountain side (Carini side) from where the kerosene fire was witnessed. The wreckage was strewn across a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) area, so wide it took rescue teams three hours to reach it. Later on, some witnesses at Carini said that they had seen the aircraft on fire before the crash.
Of the 115 passengers and crew, almost all were Italian; the only known foreigners aboard were a Belgian stewardess, an English woman and a French couple. The travelers were, for the most part, returning home to vote in the Italian national elections that weekend. Among the victims of the crash were the noted film director Franco Indovina and Cestmir Vycpalek, the son of the then-coach of the Juventus team.
Nationality | Passengers | Crew | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Italian | 105 | 6 | 111 |
French | 2 | 0 | 2 |
United States | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Belgium | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Total | 108 | 7 | 115 |
The crash occurred on the 26th anniversary of Alitalia, which started operations with a single Fiat G.12 on loan from the Italian air force.
After the accident[edit]
Wreckage of Flight 112
The trial represented the official version of events. The trial targeted the pilots for not following the guidelines of the flight controllers. The reason for the crash was labeled as 'pilot error' and a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) (describes an unintentional crash by an airworthy aircraft into the ground).[2]
There is another version of the accident held by some of the victims’ relatives. Mrs. Maria Eleonora Fais, sister of Angela Fais, who died in that plane, was able to find, after many years, the report of the Vice-Chief of Police Giuseppe Peri that says that the plane exploded because of a bombing. Peri accuses an alliance of people having ties with the Mafia and with a subversive group from the Right with the responsibility for this bombing. Three days after the accident the political elections would be held in which a strong rise of the Right was foreseen. The National Association of Italian Pilots (ANPAC) sided with the pilots, refusing the possibility of a mistake due to their long experience and because the accusation of an intoxication to prove their 'exclusive' responsibility had been denied. Other problems have been raised on the bad position of the airport of Punta Raisi. (On the position of the airport, see the accusations raised by Giuseppe Impastato)
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There is an urban legend that in the crash of Montagna Longa a mythical first wife or partner of the songwriter Francesco De Gregori found her death. But it is only an unfounded conjecture[3] deducted from the words of the song Buonanotte Fiorellino, which seems to make allusion to the tragedy. In reality, the song is inspired by 'Winterlude' of Bob Dylan.
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^The Lowell Press. 'Italy Jet Crash Kills 115.' 9 May 1972.
- ^Joint Safety Implementation Team (JSIT) (29 February 2000). 'Safer Skies: A Focused Safety Agenda'(PDF). FAA: 4. Archived from the original(PDF) on 1 October 2006.Cite journal requires
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(help)CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link) - ^Enrico Deregibus. Francesco De Gregori – quello che non-so lo so cantare. Giunti, 2003.
Bibliography[edit]
- Antonio Bordoni. 'Piloti malati – Quando il pilota non-scende dall'aereo'. Roma, Travel Factory S.r.l., Dicembre 2008.
- Giorgio De Stefani. 'Navigazione Aerea Manuale Giuridico Amministrativo'. Roma, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1985.
- Edoardo Rebulla. 'Sogni d'acqua'. Sellerio Editore Palermo.
- Renato Azzinnari e Leone Zingales. 'Anni difficili'. Casa Editrice Istituto Gramsci Siciliano.
External links[edit]
- Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
Xplane1972 Discord
Coordinates: 38°07′23″N13°08′53″E / 38.12306°N 13.14806°E
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