Airport Security Needs Improvement

It appears that the terrorists who attacked our country were able to get easy access to several commercial aircraft, all on the same day and at the same hour. How was this possible? The FAA should have improved airport and aircraft security years ago. Airport security personnel are paid low wages, and it looks like the result was visible. The safety of our country and aircraft passengers depends on taking serious steps toward modern, professional security at all of our airports.

Bruce Nolte

Pasadena

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Until Tuesday, my sixth-grader was not much interested in engineering or economics. Now she wants to know how best to secure the cockpits of all U.S. commercial airliners. What cockpit door could be impenetrable to hijackers? What materials would be used? How much would it weigh? What are the costs involved, and who would bear them? She has seen all the technology that “Spy Kids” and “Mission: Impossible” have to offer but feels that a better physical barrier between terrorists and the pilot is the way to go.

Saria Kraft

Westlake Village

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I fly several times a year, and I always take a Swiss Army knife with me in my carry-on bag. Its uses are many, and it has often come in handy in my travels. Only once has someone spotted the knife in my luggage, and that was in Vietnam last year. Security bagged the knife and gave it to me when I arrived in L.A. It’s easy to see how terrorists could sneak knives or other kinds of weapons on board an airplane. Unless we make it impossible to do so, we will continue to be victims of terrorism.

Robert Carrelli

Thousand Oaks