Don’t Expect Greater Airport Security After Alaska Air Crash
Skift Take
Security is all about tolerances. Yes, there's probably a way to ensure that no airline employee ever steals an airplane again. But it's probably not worth instituting such procedures. This was more likely a tragic fluke than anything.
Almost any time security is breached at a U.S. airport, travelers wonder how it can happen in a post-9/11 world, after the government has spent billions of dollars to keep passengers safe.
But whether it's a terminal shooting, or a stolen aircraft like the one that caused 90 minutes of panic Friday night near Seattle, aviation insiders are rarely surprised but not because airports are dangerous. It's because no public space can be 100 percent secure from someone who wants to inflict harm on themselves or others.
Undoubtedly, Friday's news from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was unusual. Officials said a 29-year-old employee of Horizon Air, an Alaska Air Group subsidiary, jumped into the cockpit of a Horizon Bombardier Q400 turboprop parked in a maintenance area before taxiing it to an active runway and taking off without clearance at 7:32 p.m.
The man, who did not have a pilot's license, flew around the Seattle area for a little more than an hour, officials said, trailed
