Scans are required of every person and of all carry-on items. After taking off their shoes and removing everything metal, such as coins, keys and belt buckles from clothing, passengers walk through a metal detector. If the detector beeps, a security agent checks the traveler who set it off with a hand-held detector. Passengers have to take their computers out of their cases and place them, any carry-on bags, shoes, and jackets into plastic bins. Everything in the bins is conveyed through an X-ray machine, which flashes an image of the bins' contents onto a screen where an operator checks for suspicious objects. If the scanner finds something unusual, bags are hand-searched. Also, passengers can be randomly selected for a complete body and baggage inspection. In addition, security agents trained in recognizing anything unusual patrol the airport at regular intervals.
Any time an aircraft is unattended, the crew is required to activate the installed security system and lock all entrances. While service personnel clean, restock, inspect and fuel the airplane, at least one crew member must stay with them at all times. Before take-off, the crew checks the plane's bathrooms and other nooks and crannies for unauthorized people, and inspects the baggage compartments. Any objects left from earlier flights are removed. Air marshals fly on national and international flights. Besides all commercial planes, any private and business aircraft over 12,500 pounds has to comply with similar security procedures.
Pilots, flight attendants and other crew members are required to attend an annual training to keep up with the newest developments for protection of the plane and the passengers. Pilots and employees of general aviation airports have access to a toll-free number to call any time if they observe anything suspicious. Screening device operators at the airports are trained to recognize anything unusual as they scan the passengers and their carry-on baggage. Flight instructors are following stringent rules to ensure that no out-of-country flight students pose a threat to aviation or to national security. Besides being background-screened, pilots, flight instructors, air traffic controllers and maintenance technicians carry tamper-proof licenses issued by the FAA.
TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, keeps a current list of names of people who might pose a danger, and therefore are not allowed onto an airplane. It also regularly cross-checks airman and aircraft registries against known terrorist and criminal databases, and new employees working for the airports are carefully background-screened. In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration keeps researching and developing new security devices.
