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A New Sense of Security
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Written by Rachel Roth, Features Staff Writer
On Christmas Day, a terrorist boarded a plane on Northwest Airlines intending to inflict harm on those inside. Flight 253 was headed to Detroit from Amsterdam that morning. The 23 year old Nigerian passenger, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, attempted to trigger a bomb that was attached to his body while on board the flight. Fortunately, the explosive just sparked a fire before creating any real damage, and the man’s attempt was stopped.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is said to have been linked to al-Qaida. In addition, he is currently on a list of potential terrorist suspects in the airport security system. Therefore, he should have been pulled aside to have a more extensive check than just any other everyday passenger. The regular scanning machines did not have the ability to pickup or sense the type of explosive device that was strapped to his body. If he had been one of the few selected to go through a more thorough search as he should have, then the bomb would have most likely been detected. A high tech Puffer Machine could have found the explosive very easily as well as a full-body scanner.
As a result of all of this chaos, airport security has once again tightened up. Full-body scanners are now being used in a lot of airports to help prevent something like this from ever happening again. In addition, new technology is currently being created to detect such explosives or other harmful objects. Some passengers are being required to be scanned and completely patted down in order to advance from the security checkpoint to board their flights. There are also many more police officers that are keeping a more watchful eye due to this attempted terrorist attack.
Terrorist attacks can rarely be predicted and can hopefully be prevented in the future. As you can see, more severe airport security checks have been put in to place and other precautions have been made in hopes to prevent another attack. Luckily, the bomb was seized and the worst case scenario was avoided, but, people may not be so lucky the next time. All of this is the cause of the heightened airport security and the reason it has intensified for a more safe future for us all.
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