On Nov. 19, the Transportation Security Administration will turn 21 — old enough to drink, but not a full-size alcoholic beverage.
The Department of Homeland Security agency was established in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent threats to air travelers’ safety, such as the foiled shoe bomber in 2001 and the 2006 attempt to detonate liquid explosives hidden in soda bottles on flights from England to North America. Many of the safety measures introduced back then are still with us now, such as the 3-1-1 liquids rule.
“I don’t think anyone is saying that the way we did things are the way we will do things,” said J. Matt Gilkeson, director of TSA’s Innovation Task Force, which tests new security technologies. “We want to be beyond where we were 20 years ago.”
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Source: Stars and Stripes