To clarify -
“Take Me to Cuba” was a common problem of the 60’s in the USA. It was not enough to create the need for security checks. Typically, a nutjob would wave a gun, the plane would divert to Cuba, and then the guy was Castro’s problem. Apparently they did not do well there either, Cuba recognized them for the unstable personalities they were.
(Canadian TV ran an add for Resdan Dandruff shampoo - the hijacker says “take me to Canada!” Canada? Why? For Resdan, only available in Canada. They give him the treatment with the shampoo in the cockpit, and he says “Ok, take me to Cuba”. Hijacking was a joke back then, can’t imagine a company using a hijack as a joke in a commercial today)
Part of the problem came when people like DB Cooper realized that the same technique could be used for extortion or political statements. IIRC some Black Liberation types hijacked a plane in the early 70’s and demanded various things before going to Cuba.
The real impetus was the Munich Olympics in 1972 and the threat of Palestinian hijackings. ( See this Dawson's Field hijackings - Wikipedia in 1970 - 5 simultaneous hijackings in Europe.) It was simply getting too dangerous on airplanes, and for the Palestinian issue in general.
The plot of a John D. MacDonald story, “The Taste of Gravy” (Playboy, June 1974), depends on some passengers being bumped off a plane because of a faulty alarm when they walk through “a small electronic arch.” That must have been a hip new topical reference at the time.
Until about 1993 you did not have to prove your identity. Airline tickets purchased by John Smith were frequently sold in the classified ads and Bob Jones would be able to use them.
The crazy thing about that case is most people who are too young to remember seeing them would find the idea of buying life insurance from a vending machine at the airport to be unbelievable. Your link says they were common into the 1980’s. I didn’t realize they were around that late.
Note that the first metal detectors were installed by some airlines, or at some airports, before they became mandatory in January 1973.
In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, written in May 1971, Hunter Thompson (or his alter ego, Raoul Duke) considers bringing a gun onto a plane and wonders if they have metal detectors at the Las Vegas airport. Some had them on that date; some didn’t.
In 1972-73, as documented, the FAA made them mandatory at all US commercial airports.
As one would expect with something that evolved over time, no one hijacking or group of hijackings was responsible. The “take me to Cuba” hijackings, the hijackings for ransom, the Palestinians–all were terrifying (and a hell of an inconvenience) for passengers and crew taken hostage, and all played their part in forcing universal weapon detection.
Heh. The article never (that I saw) refers to those flying on planes as “people” or even “passengers.”
I can remember, by the mid-Eighties, signs at airport security checkpoints warning you that it was against FAA regs to joke about hijacking, contraband, bombs, etc., and that doing so would trigger an investigation.
In Canada, it still is possible to fly commercial without a security check - if the flight does not connect to any other flights, and the passengers do not have access to the security areas that the screen ed passengers do.
For instance, here in Saskatchewan, we have air service that flys Beechcrafts several times daily between Regina and Saskatoon. The company has its own terminal. Passengers arrive, check in, let the staff know if they need a cab at the other end. When the plane is ready, the passengers just walk out and onto the plane. Luggage is stowed. Neither passengers nor luggage is screened. At the other end, the passengers get off, collect their bags, and take a cab.
The key is that it’s an entirely separate terminal, and the passengers cannot mingle with passengers on connecting flights. But it’s certainly commercial - small-scale, but commercial.
Hey, how else is he supposed to have made it to over 37K posts if all of them have to be original?
Like other’s have said, it’s not like there was ever any terrorism before 9/11, or like there weren’t any other reasons to only allow people with boarding passes (and some airline/airport personnel) near the gates. Maybe by 2001 there were some small airports that allowed just anyone near the gates - and it looks like some still might. But most airports beyond the tiniest had long abandoned that practice by then.
This was planned as a joke on Friends (when Chandler and Monica are about to embark on their honeymoon, Chandler sees a sign at the airport: “DO NOT JOKE ABOUT BOMBS”, so he goes up to a security agent and says something like, “Don’t worry; I always take my bombs seriously”, and they miss their flight because he ends up in a detention area of some sort). It was recorded before 9/11/2001, but meant for broadcast after that date; after the bombings, the scene was cut from the broadcast.
There’s a great scene in the movie The Parallax View where Warren Beatty is following someone. He jumps a fence and sneaks onto the guy’s plane. After they’re airborne a stewardess asks him his name, he gives a fake one, she writes it down in a legal pad and says “that’ll be 78 dollars.”
I remember when you could no longer smoke on US flights less than 2 hours - it was in 1988. My brother and I were flying together and he was pretty upset about it b/c they had just changed it.