Aviation security: flight and cabin crew member security training strengthened

Original publisher: [Washington, D.C.] : U.S. Government Accountability Office, [2005] OCLC Number: (OCoLC)61821153 Subject: Aeronautics, Commercial -- United States -- Safety measures. Excerpt: ... Figure 1: Number of Domestic Air Carriers by Carrier Group and Percentage of Passengers Flown Domestically by Carrier Group Over $ 1 billion 12 21 $ 100 million to $ 1 billion 76 % 20 % 72 $ 20 million to $ 100 million 4 % Total number of domestic Annual operating Percentage of passengers flown carriers by carrier group: 105 revenues domestically by carrier group Major National Regional Source: GAO analysis of Bureau of Transportation Statistics data. Federal guidance for air carriers to use to develop their flight and cabin crew security training programs has been in place for over 20 years. FAA developed the crew member security training guidance, referred to as Common Strategy I, in the early 1980 ' s in response to numerous hijacking incidents in the late 1970 ' s. Common Strategy I generally instructed air carriers to develop training programs that called for flight and cabin crew members to cooperate with threatening passengers or hijackers and slow compliance with their demands. Based on this guidance, FAA also developed corresponding security training standards that set forth the requirements for flight and cabin crew member security training. Air carriers were required to incorporate the guidance and standards into their security training programs. FAA principal security inspectors and principal operations inspectors were responsible for monitoring air carriers ' compliance with the security training standards. The nature of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, however, demonstrated that the philosophy of Common Strategy I - to cooperate with hijackers - was flawed as it presumed that hijackers would not use aircraft as weapons of mass destruction. Following the events of September 11, 2001, section 107 of ATSA required FAA, in consultation with TS...