Just as small blades could be used as weapons, he mentions that wine bottles could be a similar source of danger and have been used in a hijacking.

“Are we going to do away with those as well?” he asks.

“The [security procedures] weren’t to deal with this extraordinary thing, where you had people who were not only suicidal, they were suicidal pilots. The regulations and the security programs did not foresee this,” he says.

“There was no failure of anything that is in regulation, including anything that was in the emergency regulations, or in any regulations that were forthcoming on Sept. 10,” he continues.

It is difficult, he says, to strike a balance between a need for security and simple, pragmatic concerns.

“If you have long lines as a steady state of affairs, the people performing the security functions at the counters are overwhelmed, and security is adversely affected,” he says.

Similarly, he says, some passengers dissatisfied with today’s security measures have suggested armed guards accompany every flight—one of many precautions employed by El Al, Israel’s national airline carrier, long known for its tough security measures.