Rational Reason: Danger in the skies
The traveling public needs answers, fast
Rational Reason, January 7, 2025
Stoways have always been a problem, whether on trains, boats, or airplanes. However a recent spate of high-profile instances calls into question the effectiveness of airport security and the processes that are supposed to protect the traveling public.
Jet Blue announced on Tuesday that it found two bodies in the wheel well of a plane after it landed in Ft. Lauderdale. The plane had taken off from JFK Airport in New York.
Delta had two incidents within about a month of each other. On Nov.26, a woman evaded security —- once again at JFK —- and flew to Paris without a ticket. Pilots called the police because the woman was acting oddly onboard. In the second incident, a passenger boarded a plane in Seattle that was headed to Honolulu. The passenger also bypassed security but was apprehended as the plane taxied.
Also, on Dec. 26, United officials discovered a body in the wheel well after it landed in Hawaii. The plane took off from Chicago.
These incidents lead to an important question:
How are people so easily avoiding security, making their way to the tarmac, evading cameras, and either walking onto planes or climbing up ladders to cram themselves into wheel wells? Those are tiny spaces.
The airlines involved say they don’t know how these people made their way onto planes, though TSA pointed to a number of security lapses at JFK that allowed the Paris stowaway to board. We still don’t know how the other instances occurred.
Airlines project they’ll carry 5.2 billion passengers this year, the first time the figure could surpass 5 billion. That’s a lot of lives in the hands of carriers.
Simply saying, “We don’t know” doesn’t cut it. The New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans reminds us that it takes just one determined person to wreak havoc. Security camera footage available on YouTube shows how to sneak past gate agents, walk onto the runway, and then climb into the one place in the wheel well where the tires won’t crush you to death.
Airlines and TSA need to immediately reassure the 5-plus billion people planning of new efforts to secure the skies. If it means slower security lines, pre-flight wheel well checks, additional cameras, or another check of boarding passes on board, so be it.
Americans would be on board with extra security, as this YouGov survey shows. If we are, TSA and the airlines should be, too.
Ray Marcano has more than 40 years of experience as a reporter, editor, executive, and leader. He’s worked for some of the country’s biggest brands, including CNN, ESPN’s Andcape, and USAToday. His award-winning column appears each Sunday in the Dayton (OH) Daily News, and he’s a frequent contributor to the Columbus (OH) Dispatch. He’s the former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, a two-time Pulitzer juror, and a Fulbright Fellow.