Where do our weaknesses lie, and will future acts of air terror depend on methods yet unseen?
The threats we face, and the measures we take to thwart them, are both in a competitive state of flux, making safety, or the lack thereof, a tough thing to quantify. And, as airline passengers, it’s important to bear in mind that we’ve never been in particularly grave danger to begin with. That being said, assessing the future of air terror first requires us to remember and understand the past. Terrorism and civil aviation have shared a violent, decades-long relationship, and our adversaries have learned to rely on proven techniques and tactics. But although we ignore these time-tested methods at our peril, newer and more nefarious technologies are also at the disposal of terrorists. By far the most worrisome is the proliferation of portable, heat-seeking rockets. These compact, lightweight and easily concealable weapons — known alternately as shoulder-fired missiles or MANPADS (man-portable air defense systems) — have been a danger for decades, but since Sept. 11 they’ve become the
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