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Abstract
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In the 20 years since the terrible events of 9/11, the transportation industry and our understanding of terrorism, complex disasters, and resilience have changed greatly. The "weaponization" of transportation assets led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration. Improvements in emergency response and recovery, risk assessment, communications and coordination, and adaptive systems remain a work-in-progress. Transportation operations, as well as research, training and education have all evolved, but larger, more complex and threatening challenges remain.
The weaponization of transport
9/11 was a coordinated terrorist attack on the morning of September 11, 2001 when four aircraft which departed from different airports in northeastern United States were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. Two planes (American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines 176) crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City. Another (American Airlines 77) crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane (United Airlines 93) crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, when heroic passengers fought back.
All of the planes were Boeing equipment (767 and 757 models). Two departed from Logan International Airport (Boston) while the others left from Washington Dulles International Airport and Newark International Airport. The terrorists commandeered the aircraft with box cutters and utility tools which were not forbidden on commercial aircraft. The plane crashes ignited fires that spread rapidly because of jet fuel and insufficient suppression equipment.
9/11 was the worst terrorist attack in recorded history. Nearly 3000 people were killed including all passengers, crew and hijackers and building occupants and first responders who were trapped when structures collapsed. Many more were injured and suffered from exposure to dust, toxic chemicals and carcinogenic substances.
Aircraft hijackings had occurred before 9/11. The WTC had previously been attacked in 1993 with a car bomb in the parking structure. Earlier acts of terrorism include the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995. Yet the United States was largely unprepared for 9/11. Mike Davis (2006) has documented the history of mobile bombs from a horse drawn wagon detonated by an Italian anarchist on Wall Street in 1920 to the frequent use of vehicles in Pakistan, Beirut, Northern Ireland and London, Afghanistan and other countries as the transport modality of choice for terrorists. The low cost, simplicity, wide availability of energetic materials, and ubiquity of motorized vehicles make detection and interdiction all the more challenging. With asymmetric warfare and disparate capabilities between countries, militaries, and security forces, these tactics are likely to persist. As the camper explosion in Nashville on December 25, 2020 reveals, the use of vehicles by lone wolf and suicide bombers seeking to exploit weaknesses in security and surveillance is a continuing threat...
Language: en |