ORLANDO, Fla. — Twenty five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks led to the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, airport security continues to change as threats evolve and new technology becomes available.
The TSA was formed in the months after the attacks to enhance safety at airports across the country. Since then, travelers have seen changes including the removal of jackets at checkpoints, restrictions on liquids and requirements involving electronics.
Tatiana Finlay said she was 17 and heading to work at Orlando International Airport on Sept. 11, 2001, when she was sent home.
“They stopped us and we got sent back home,” Finlay said.
Finlay said the atmosphere at the airport that day was difficult and uncertain.
“It was very heavy, it was very heavy that day,” she said.
Finlay later applied to become a TSA officer after high school. She has now served in Orlando for 22 years.
“To us, the never forget, it’s not a slogan,” Finlay said. “To us, it is something that we live every day, we know exactly what happened and we will not forget, and we do our job because of that, because we don’t forget.”
Finlay said she has grown up in her TSA uniform, met her husband at work and started a family. She said the job has given her a sense of purpose.
“It has been a great experience to know that I have found my purpose in this,” she said.
Former federal agent Dave Benson said the TSA was created to focus specifically on aviation security after the attacks.
“They were thrust with focusing specifically on the nature of a threat, which was aviation security,” Benson said.
Benson said that while some airline security existed before 9/11, the use of box cutters in the attacks showed gaps in preparedness.
“I promise you there was no specificity to that threat but hindsight being 20/20, we should have been better prepared for it,” Benson said. “I don’t think there is any question about it, it was just a matter of time.”
Benson said today’s security concerns are different from those faced in the years immediately after 9/11.
“The threat landscape has changed, cyber threats, electronic warfare, nontraditional asymmetric type of weapons that are frankly to the bad guys much easier to perpetrate than trying to get through airport security,” Benson said.
The TSA is also testing new procedures. A pilot program at 13 airports allows TSA PreCheck passengers to go to gates without a boarding pass.
Orlando International Airport is not currently participating in that program but they have a separate program called the Experience MCO Visitor Pass, which allows people to go to the gate without a ticket.
Travelers must apply and receive TSA approval for that program.