Though many Americans may associate airport security with 9/11, it was a wave of hijackings in the late 1960s and early 1970s that laid the foundation for today’s airport security protocols.
During that period, a hijacking occurred, on average, once every five days globally. The United States dealt with its own spate of mile-high crimes, convincing reluctant government officials and airport executives to adopt the first important airport security protocols.
Hijacker D.B. Cooper—the subject of the new Netflix docuseries “D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?!”—emerged as something of a folk hero during this era. While other more violent hijackings might have played a bigger role in prompting early airport security measures, it was the saga of Cooper that captured the imagination of the American public—and helped transform the perception of the overall threat hijackings posed to U.S. air travel and national security.
Hellbound and Down 