CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – Ellen Saracini will never forget Sept. 11, 2001. She relives it every day.
“It’s amazing when you think that it’s been 20 years,” Saracini said in an interview with FOX 46 reporter Matt Grant. “Someone asked my daughter, it was around Sept. 11th timeframe, ‘So this is your hard day?’ And she said, ‘No this is your hard day. Every day is our hard day.’”
Ellen’s husband, United Airlines pilot Capt. Victor Saracini was killed when his plane, Flight 175, was hijacked and hurled into the World Trade Center.
Twenty years later, she’s joining other pilots, flight attendants, and former air marshals to sound the alarm on what they say is a major security flaw that still exists.
“I’m appalled that we haven’t done more in this amount of time,” Saracini said. “I can’t look another family member in the eye and say, ‘Sorry, I knew this vulnerability existed and I decided not to do anything about it.’”
SAFETY IN THE SKY
That vulnerability is highlighted in a reenactment video made by current airline employees, who are hiding their identity in fear of retaliation for speaking out. It depicts a nightmare scenario: Hijackers pouncing the moment the pilot opens the cockpit door. The breach is able to occur in less than two seconds, the video shows.
“Are passengers’ lives at risk right now every time they fly?,” asked Grant.
“I mean a hundred percent,” said Spencer Pickard, a former federal air marshal from 2002-2006, who joined after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “If somebody can get into a cockpit, they can do another 9/11. It’s that simple.”
“The thinking that a hijacking could still happen, 20 years after 9/11, seems unbelievable,” said Grant.
“Honestly,” said Pickard, “I don’t know why it hasn’t happened.”
His father, Joseph Pickard, is a retired American Airlines pilot with 46 years of experience flying. He flew for American for 17 years and was in the Air Force for 20 years. He says the fortified cockpit doors are routinely opened mid-flight for food and bathroom breaks.
“I’d say, on average,” said Joseph, “twice during a three to four hour flight.”
For all of the billions of dollars spent on security, the Pickard’s say the first line of defense against an open cockpit is often a flight attendant and a drink cart.
Air marshals, they say, can’t be on every flight.
SECONDARY BARRIERS A SOLUTION?
“We completely support secondary barriers on all of our aircraft,” the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, Sara Nelson, told Congress in 2019. “And it’s an absurd practice to have flight attendants use their own bodies as a barrier between the cabin and the cockpit.”
The union represents 50,000 flight attendants on 20 airlines.
In 2018, Congress mandated that gates be installed in front of the cockpit on all newly manufactured planes. These “secondary barriers” were deemed necessary to protect the cockpit after a 2017 Office of Inspector General report found the “FAA is not effectively mitigating all existing cockpit security vulnerabilities.”
Three years later, nothing has happened. The FAA studied the issue and says it will issue a rule in the “coming months.”
“What do you need a committee for?,” said Joseph. “We know what needs to be done. “Let’s figure out which one we’re going to buy and do it.”
OLD AND NEW THREATS
Federal officials have known about the security gap for years. In 2004, the 9-11 Commission Report found the mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, told hijackers look for ways to exploit “gaps in cabin security” saying:
“….Watch the cockpit door at takeoff and landing to observe whether the captain went to the lavatory during the flight, and to note whether the flight attendants brought food into the cockpit…” (9-11 Commission Report, Pg. 158, 2004).
More than a decade later, in 2015, the FAA warned pilots in an advisory circular that the opening and closing of the flight deck door – referred to as a “door transition” – “reduces the anti-intrusion/anti-penetration benefits of the reinforced door.”
“During the door transition,” the FAA warned pilots, “the flight deck is vulnerable.”
As recent as December 2020, authorities arrested a man with ties to Al Qaeda, accused of plotting another 9/11 style attack. The alleged would-be hijacker researched information about “the tallest building in a major U.S. city” along with “how to breach a cockpit door from the outside,” according to federal court records.
The only way someone would be able to penetrate the bulletproof cockpit door is when it is opened, air marshals tell reporter Matt Grant.
The Pickard’s say secondary barriers on every flight could save lives.
“What do you think about the fact that older planes seem to be excluded from this?,” asked Grant.
“My opinion is if you don’t do them all [on every flight] it’s a total waste of money. Period,” said Joseph Pickard. “They knew the routes. They knew everything. You think [terrorists are] not gonna know which planes have them and don’t? And are they gonna get on the ones that do or don’t? I mean it’s just, to me, It’s just mind boggling anybody would recommend spending the money on just new airplanes and not the old ones. I don’t understand that at all.”
“Why do you think that’s the case?” asked Grant.
“Money,” said Spencer.
“Probably money,” his father echoed.
The barriers are estimated to cost $5000 to $12,000 per plane. By comparison, in-flight entertainment systems are estimated to cost $10,000 per seat.
“The 9-11 Commission stated a ‘failure of imagination’ is what contributed in large part to Sept. 11,” said Saracini. “And what we have now is that we’re just failing to imagine that this could happen again.”
Last week, bipartisan lawmakers introduced a bill in the House that would require secondary barriers on all planes – old and new. The senate is planning to introduce similar legislation.
The measure is named in memory of Capt. Saracini.
“Could these barriers prevent another 9/11?,” Grant asked.
“Absolutely,” said Saracini.
The bill has the support of pilots, flight attendants and federal law enforcement officers. The FAA would not comment on proposed or pending legislation.
FAA Statement on Secondary Barriers
“The FAA received recommendations from the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC) in March 2020. Our rulemaking team is now developing the proposed rule, which will be published for public comment in the coming months. Consistent with the mandate from Congress, the rulemaking is focused on secondary barriers for newly manufactured airplanes.”
Airlines’ Lobbying Group Statement
FOX 46 reached out to Airlines For America, a lobbying group that represents several major U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, about its opposition to the bill.
“The safety and security of our passengers and crew is and will continue to be the airline industry’s highest priority. We have worked closely with the TSA and other industry stakeholders to develop a sophisticated and multi-layered security approach, transforming the U.S. aviation security system into the gold standard of the world. Airlines use a variety of measures and tactics to ensure the area around the flight deck is secure. U.S. airlines will continue to work vigilantly to ensure they meet or exceed all federal security standards.
U.S. airlines use a variety of measures and tactics to ensure the area around the flight deck is secure. Some carriers have determined that secondary cockpit barriers are appropriate on certain types of aircraft. We support individual airlines’ decisions to install these systems and do not support one-size-fits-all mandates.”
