Commentary: Hijackings era may have ended

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- This past weekend's edition of USA Today carried a political cartoon by Mike Smith of the Las Vegas Sun with the following caption:" Approved design for securing cockpit doors." The cartoon depicts a passenger standing guard outside a cockpit, with his arms spread out, so as to prevent access to the cockpit.

Ironically, there may be more than initially meets the eye to this cartoon. With airport security upgrades still being discussed by the federal government, this may yet be the best deterrence against hijackings.

The Sept. 11 quadruple hijackings that turned three of the four airliners into deadly missiles may very well have closed the chapter, if not the book, on airline hijackings.

In order to carry out a successful hijacking, two things are required: weapons and cooperating hostages.

The events of Sept. 11 have crystallized the need to step up security, not only on board airplanes, but also in airports, and the need to better screen airport personnel.

Smuggling a weapon aboard a flight has become far more difficult after the Sept. 11 attacks as security measures have been stepped up in most airports around the world. New York Times columnist Tom Friedman reported last week that he was forced to check in a pair of tweezers that was in his carry-on bag. But as witnessed and reported by this writer on Saturday, there remains much to be done in this area.

Nonetheless, these are steps in the right direction.

The second requirement, cooperating hostages -- as Mike Smith's cartoon adequately depicts, has become something that future hijackers will no longer be able to take for granted. This is due to the murderous Sept. 11 attacks, specifically, the action taken by the passengers of the ill-fated plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania after the hostages learned of the fate reserved to the passengers of the three other airliners.

This may prove to be the turning point in hijacking history. One thing that is certain, no future hijacking will unfold as planned any longer.

Since Sept. 11, we have seen on or two instances of passengers pre-empting would-be hijackers, or believed would be hijackers. Realizing what would be in store for them if they were to remain idle, passengers decided to take their fate into their own hands and act, thwarting the hijackers' plans.

With the knowledge of what was in store for those aboard the planes that smashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, people are far less likely to simply sit idly by and cooperate with air piracy in the future.

Until Sept. 11 most hostages believed that if they remained quiet, sat still and cooperated, at worse, they would be released after a few days. As we discovered to our horror, that is no longer the case.

But that does not mean that the world has defeated terrorism in that area, far from it. Those who mean to hurt the civilized world will certainly come up with novice ideas in the future. The intelligent thing now, as the United States and their allies conduct the war on terrorism, will be to address the root causes of this anger, and to remain a step ahead of them at the same time. Because without a doubt, there will be a next step.