![]() ![]() And don't forget to take your liquids of 3.4 ounces or less out of your carry-on. We take off our shoes, empty our pockets and take laptops and other devices out of carry-on bags before stepping into high-resolution, full-body scanners, while our bags go through 3D-imaging X-ray machines. Now, travelers often stand in long lines at security checkpoints with wait times that can exceed an hour. "All you had to do was go through the security checkpoint - no questions asked, no ID needed." You did not have to have a boarding pass," Price says. "You could walk up to the gate at the very last minute. "It was designed to be something in the background that really wasn't that noticeable and definitely did not interfere with aircraft or airport operations." "Before 9/11, security was almost invisible, and it was really designed to be that way," Price says. Those security contracts usually went to the lowest bidder. 11, 2001, and is now an aviation security expert at Metropolitan State University of Denver.Īirport security at that time was carried out by private contractors, usually hired by the airlines, with few federal standards. "It was so easy - a lot of us were surprised it hadn't happened sooner," says Jeff Price, who was assistant security director at Denver International Airport on Sept. This allowed the hijackers to commandeer those airplanes and use them as jet fuel-filled missiles as they flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pa., killing nearly 3,000 people. 11, 2001, knew that and exploited lax airport security measures, strolling through metal detectors at four airport security checkpoints with ease, with deadly weapons in hand. The 19 al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists who hijacked four commercial jetliners on Sept. We'd keep our shoes and coats on as we went through a simple metal detector, and virtually anyone could go right to the gate without a boarding pass or even showing an ID. It's hard to fathom now, but we used to be able to arrive at the airport just minutes before a flight. A traveler at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport walks to a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint on Nov. ![]()
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