JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 It\u2019s been 25 years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and travelers and Transportation Security Administration officers paused to remember the lives lost and the changes that followed.<\/p>\n
At 8:46 Friday morning, the time the first plane struck the World Trade Center, the security checkpoint at Jacksonville International Airport briefly closed for a moment of silence. TSA officers stood together before the agency\u2019s Honor Guard gave a presentation.<\/p>\n
For travelers moving through the normally busy airport, the ceremony offered a moment to reflect.<\/p>\n
Malory Blanton completed the 9\/11 Challenge Stair Climb last year. During the symbolic event, participants climb 110 flights of stairs to honor the first responders who climbed the towers of the World Trade Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always have such a profound appreciation for the firefighters, but I could not imagine going up all of the stairs and the smoke and the heat and the hopelessness, knowing you\u2019re never coming down,\u201d Blanton said.<\/p>\n
The attacks also transformed air travel across the country. Before 9\/11, travelers could move through airport security without having their identification or boarding passes checked. Laptops remained inside bags, there were no restrictions on liquids, and passengers could carry knives shorter than four inches onto planes.<\/p>\n
Today, identification checks, security screenings, and restrictions on what passengers can carry have become a routine part of flying. <\/p>\n
Christopher Baden, Assistant Federal Security Director for Screening, said the attacks remain personal for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually in the Department of Defense near the Pentagon on 9\/11, so I still have memories of what happened that day,\u201d Baden said.<\/p>\n
Baden now works with airport security teams in Jacksonville and at other airports across North Florida. He said those memories help remind him why he does the work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a specific personal memory of 9\/11, which always brings it back to why I\u2019m doing what I do,\u201d Baden said. \u201cDay to day, we can sometimes forget, but when we have a ceremony like this today, it always reminds me of how dedicated my team is to make sure everyone flies safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some airports are now beginning to restore a small part of the pre-9\/11 travel experience. TSA recently rolled out Gateside by TSA PreCheck, which allows some people who are not flying to accompany loved ones to their gates.<\/p>\n
The program comes with restrictions. It is available only to TSA PreCheck members, who must apply one to three days in advance and complete a full security screening at the airport. The program is currently available at 13 airports across the country. Orlando International Airport is the only participating airport in Florida or Georgia.<\/p>\n
At Jacksonville International Airport, reminders of the attacks and those who lost their lives were visible throughout the terminal. The observance served as a tribute to the past and a reminder of how the events of 9\/11 continue to shape air travel a quarter century later.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 It\u2019s been 25 years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and travelers and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[51700,158283,982,5228,6731,5672,12909,18583,969,116,118,117,24683,634,3213,156874],"class_list":["post-397273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-9-11","tag-9-11_challenge","tag-action_news","tag-action_news_jacks","tag-airport","tag-chandler","tag-deja","tag-deja_mayfield","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville_international_airport","tag-local","tag-tsa","tag-world_trade_center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}