Explainer – It only took one day for how New Zealanders fly to be forever changed.

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the 11 September, 2001 terrorist attacks in America, which left nearly 3000 people dead.

Two New Zealanders also were killed on that day – Alan Beaven, a New Zealand native and environmental attorney who died on the hijacked Flight 93, and John Lozowsky, a US-born New Zealander who had dual citizenship and who died in the World Trade Center collapse.

There had been plane hijackings and bombings before 2001, of course, but what happened that day was something new – and terrifying.

Fred Stein is the deputy chief executive of aviation security at the Civil Aviation Authority, which establishes safety and security standards in New Zealand through its Aviation Security Service, or AvSec.

“We had trouble imagining an attack like 9/11 before 9/11 and by we, I mean the aviation industry, right?,” he said.

“And now the aviation industry not only can imagine something like 9/11, but we’re actually open to the idea that things we’ve never experienced are still possibilities.”

Most people under 30 will have no idea how different air travel was before 11 September 2001. Domestic flights in New Zealand had no real security screening at all, and international flights had far more relaxed standards than they do now.

“There were very few airports with screening and that screening was just started and was quite limited,” Stein said.

“The only real equipment was a walk-through metal detector and maybe a hand-held metal detector and the very simple x-ray machines. That was it.”

People could walk up to boarding gates to greet family members, you didn’t have to worry about carrying your water bottles through, or arrive hours earlier for international flights.

“You pretty much just showed them your ticket and boarded,” one person posted in a recent Reddit thread reminiscing about travel in New Zealand pre-9/11.

Today, only regional domestic flights for planes with fewer than 90 seats don’t have security screening, according to AvSec – mostly ATR turboprop planes.

Stein worked for 20 years at America’s Transport Security Administration, which was formed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, before he came to New Zealand to work with the CAA. The attacks using commercial airliners were on a scale that had never been seen before.

“That was really the first time that an airplane had become the weapon,” he said.

While there were deadly incidents like the 1988 UK Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, “This was the first time that the people on the aircraft had the sole purpose of turning that aircraft into a weapon.”

Security bio-scanning, shoe checking, reinforced cockpit doors – these are all part of 9/11’s impact, but the biggest change is more of a state of mind, Stein said.

It’s all about how we view air travel.

“The exact style of attack that happened on 9/11 would be almost certain to fail today,” he said.

“And a huge reason for that is because the passenger expectation has changed. Passengers wouldn’t allow themselves to be turned into a weapon by people wielding knives.”

One of the key events of that day was when the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 fought back against the hijackers. The plane crashed in Pennsylvania instead of on its expected Washington, D.C. target, killing all 37 passengers and four hijackers. New Zealand-born Alan Beaven was one of those on that flight.

Flight 93 “was galvanising,” Stein said. Its story was turned into movies and books and it helped change the image of passengers from just passive travellers to actually acting as another layer of security, he said.

“They have demonstrated again and again and again in aviation travel since then, that the passengers won’t take it. They will actually rise up and protect themselves. That was never even a consideration (before).”

Many times in recent years passengers have gotten involved with fighting back, such as with “shoe bomber” Richard Reid who attempted to blow up a Miami-bound plane in December 2001 and was tackled by passengers after he grabbed a flight attendant.

As recently as last week, a disruptive passenger on an American Airlines flight who reportedly attacked others on board was subdued and duct taped to his seat with the help of other passengers.

Crew are now trained to be more proactive, Stein said.

“Crews carry zip ties and duct tape with them, they know that they can enlist the aid of the passengers when something really unusual and threatening happens.

“Even if it’s not to the level of trying to truly hijack the plane, if they’re putting the plane at risk, passengers are gonna respond.”

The Civil Aviation Authority is “continually assessing the threat environment and working with domestic and international partners to ensure New Zealand’s security settings remain appropriate and proportionate,” Associate Transport Minister James Meager told RNZ.

The 9/11 attacks happened early in the hours of 12 September New Zealand time. Prime Minister Helen Clark was on a flight to Hong Kong for a European visit which was quickly cancelled.

Former RNZ presenter Geoff Robinson arrived at work at 4.30am to find one of the century’s biggest stories unfolding. He told Stuff in 2021, “I remember Kim Hill saying, ‘it will never be the same after this’, and she was absolutely right.”

Flights all around the world were grounded and governments hustled to upgrade security at airports.

In a book the Aviation Security Service published in 2017 looking back at its first 40 years, it describes 9/11 as the day “aviation security changed overnight”.

Cabinet ordered emergency domestic security screening nationwide at 11am, which required a major expansion of airport staff. Defence Force staff were called in to assist AvSec in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

AvSec staff, police and others worked nonstop to bring tighter screening in.

Not everyone appreciated the additional security screening or delays, AvSec wrote. People were bringing things onto flights that wouldn’t be imaginable now.

“Avsec was collecting bin loads of every imaginable object – knives, scissors, hammers, box cutters and even guns,” the book notes.

The events of 9/11 led to global standards for security, set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

“Their focus on security before 9/11 was so small, minimal, and now of course it’s a major part of what they do and the rules they set for the international community,” Stein said.

“Across all political spectrums, it doesn’t really matter, security is kind of a common thread we all hold pretty dear.”

Stein said 9/11 forced greater cooperation across nations to ensure air security.

“Very few attacks actually originate in the country that the attack is targeting.

“We’re one world, and we’ve got to work together if we’re going to keep each other safe.”

By the end of October, then-Transport Minister Mark Gosche announced domestic screening would be permanent.

“Although the changes at our airports were the most dramatic in the country’s history, AvSec moved swiftly and efficiently,” Gosche recounted in AvSec’s account of the day.

Other changes came with time in the wake of 9/11 – after a 2006 attempt in Britain to detonate liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks, strict new rules about liquids, aerosols or gels were added to most security screenings.

The changes over the past 25 years have ranged from the visible – those full body Advanced Imaging Technology or AIT scanners, where you get to raise your arms over your head and get the total treatment – to less obvious changes in how bags are screened behind the scenes.

After cockpits were stormed, hardened cockpit doors and secondary barriers were added. “Behaviour detection officers” are now trained to look for what Stein calls “indicators of deception.”

“We are lucky that we are in a different threat environment than almost anywhere else in the world,” Stein said.

But that hasn’t made New Zealand immune to air security incidents.

In 2008, Somali refugee Asha Abdille attempted to hijack an Air New Zealand flight from Blenheim to Christchurch. That led to a Ministry of Transport review and recommendations to further improve security.

“The threats don’t stop evolving,” Stein said.

Things nobody imagined in 2001 – drone attacks on planes, hacking or other threats from artificial intelligence – now need to be considered.

Organisations like AvSec need to address the threats “but to do it at the right proportion and without impacting legitimate activities. So it’s a balance, like the rest of security. It’s just a new frontier that we are learning to grapple with and trying to stay ahead of.”

For instance, those slow body scans will soon become much faster.

“We’re not far from that being a walk-through AIT, so it’ll have the speed of the walk-through metal detector, but the effectiveness of the AIT,” Stein said.

“The future technologies are continuing to change and they’re definitely going to improve security, but hopefully also improve the passenger experience.”

Meager told RNZ that the CAA and AvSec are constantly working to make flying safer.

“Over the past 25 years, aviation security in New Zealand has continued to evolve to keep pace with modern technology, most recently with work in the Civil Aviation Rules Update Programme, launched in April.

“A key project includes work to implement rules which address issues raised within International Civil Aviation Organisation audits. These improvements to security, safety and efficiency will create consistency with other like-minded countries and confirm New Zealand as a safe and highly respected international aviation destination.”

Grant Morris, associate professor of law at Victoria University, said the changes to flying after 9/11 aren’t going anywhere.

“They are here to stay for two main reasons,” he said.

“Firstly, the threat of terrorism remains. Secondly, if measures were significantly reduced and then a terrorist attack occurred, authorities would be blamed for reducing the measures.”

“New Zealanders should have confidence that agencies continue to work closely together to keep our aviation system safe, secure, and proportionate to the risks we face,” Meager said.

What happened 25 years ago forced security authorities to think bigger and smarter, Stein said.

“The idea that people would get on a plane, and be willing to kill themselves and turn that plane into a weapon, all those things were so new in 9/11 … and are now, just an ingrained part of how we approach security.

“There is just an awareness of the possibilities,” he said.

“I think we’re just collectively more open to using our imagination and knowing that the bad guy will use their imagination.”

Tomorrow: How 9/11 changed how New Zealand views its place in the world.

Source: RNZ