When was the last time one could board a commercial passenger airplane without going through any kind of security check? And as a secondary question: Was there ever a time when it was not against the law to carry a loaded weapon aboard an airplane (again, as a passenger of a commercial flight)?
In the United States, it was on the morning of September 11th, 2001.
No, security checks were in place for years before 9/11. That’s just the day they got nonsensically over-the-top about it. (Really dull trivia: I actually flew on September 10, 2001. Got stranded in Peoria, IL the next day and had to drive home.) The metal detectors and such have been in place for as long as I can remember (and I’m in my 40s). You just didn’t have to take off your shoes, bag your medicines, transfer your liquids into smaller containers, and pose for a centerfold back then.
The first time I traveled from Europe to the United States in 1982, there were thorough security checks on both sides of the Atlantic (Brussels/Belgium and JFK). I specifically remember being asked by a security guard to turn on a shortwave radio which I kept in my hand luggage (to make sure it was not a bomb, the concept of suicide bombing wasn’t really widespread back then). I also remember that we (i. e. a group of unruly teenagers) were instructed not to be funny in the presence of security guards ( “So it’s ok after all that I brought my AK47?”).
And of course, there had already been a significant number of high-profile hijackings and other terrorist attacks in the 1970s.
Without looking anything up, I’m pretty sure D.B. Cooper’s first (and so far only) successful hijacking for money in the early 70s was the final impetus for installing x-ray machines & metal detectors nationwide to universally screen luggage & passengers boarding airliners.
here’s a list of hijackings:
I remember when I was a kid, planes were hijacked by people escaping to the West from Communist countries. Then, starting in the 1970s, radical Islamic or Palestinian groups began hijacking in earnest and security was ramped up a great deal.
So, maybe since the 40s some form of security has been in place. Although after 9/11, it has been off the freakin’ wall. Security concerns seem to constantly get worse as the technology “improves” to make weapons out of formerly undetectable materials.
I think it was the late 1960’s, maybe as late as 1972. We flew as a family a couple times back then and in the late 60’s I remember just walking up to the plane and getting on, no metal detectors or searches. But I was quite young and might be mis-remembering.
I remember in 1984 being able to go right to the arrival gate to wait for my sister to get off the plane. Granted, this was in Charleston, WV, which has a pretty small airport. I don’t remember if we had to go through metal detectors, though.
I remember when the metal detectors were a new,radical idea–about 1970 or 71.
A US Senator (don’t remember from which state) made a public issue of it on the day the detectors were installed in his local airport. He refused to take a plane back to Washington, saying that he considered the metal detector to be a violation of the American way of life (specifically, the ethic of no searches without a warrant).
How times have changed!
But, back to the OP–it depends on how you define a security check.
If you are young enough that you only know about the current system of removing shoes and getting your body felt up, you might find it hard to believe that the previous system was easy and convenient. It may have been called a security check, but it was almost unnoticable to the average passenger. You simply walked through a metal detector, with no hassles and no other controls. Family members could accompany you all the way to the final gate, there were no long lines, and basically the whole process of getting on your flight was painless.
In 1997 I flew domestically within New Zealand (Christchurch to Auckland) and did not pass through any security at all.
Good guess. According to Wikipedia, the FAA required all airports to screen all passengers & their carry-on baggage as of January 5, 1973:
Unfortunately, the article doesn’t provide a citation for this, so it’d be nice to get some independent confirmation.
“Take me to Cuba” was a standing joke of the 1960’s. Quite a few nut jobs would wave a gun, the aircraft would divert to Cuba, and that was that. It was the PLO in the early 1970’s that hijacked a number of planes in Europe - there was one spectacular situation where they landed 3 planes in the middle of the desert (and blew up a jumbo jet on the runway when told it could land on hard-packed sand). Of course, this was also the time of the 1972 Munich Olympics, so concerns about terrorism in general were high. Nothing is more spectacular as a statement for a terrorist - and vulnerable - than a loaded airplane.
The nuts who wanted to go to Cuba were harmless enough. When hijacking stopped being an annoyance and started to be a deadly game and people were getting deliberately killed, it was time to start getting serious about security.
Yeah, I remember in the 60’s you could go up to the departure gate. IIRC Toronto had to start asking people to say their goodbyes at home because the terminal was getting too crowded with the whole family there to wave off on passenger. If you want to see real old-time non-security, watch the original “Airport” (1970) where the old lady talks her way onto an airplane - “that guy over there has my boarding pass”.
It’s behind a paywall, but I found an article in the New York Times of January 6, 1973 that begins, “United States airlines began yesterday, in the most widespread program of personal searches in the nation’s history, to inspect every item carried onto their 14,000 daily flights and to scan all of their 500,000 daily passengers with electronic weapons detectors.”
At this rate by the time of I am my parents age, we will have to travel nude and endure cavity searches.
That’s nothing. You do realize that the genuine future of air travel is putting all passengers to sleep for the duration of the flight.
(Bolding mine.) National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
Yes, in 1984 anyone could go to the gate, but you had to go through security.
I believe the 1973 date people are citing is correct. I flew in 1972 and didn’t have to go through security, then next flew in 1975 and by then I did.
In 1970-71 there was some limited security measures.
I remember taking the United shuttle from Modesto to LAX. The gate agent would open up my carry on and make sure I didn’t have a gun.
No metal detectors and very low key.
The Onion, as usual, is ahead of the curve. 
On September 10, 2001, I went through security and to the gate when I was dropping someone off at the airport. I even had a small Swiss Army knife on my keychain. I had to put it in the basket but collected it after and took it to the gate.