You might not notice it when you fly, but getting passengers safely and efficiently to their destination requires the work of multiple organizations.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and air traffic control all work to ensure a smooth ride when you take to the sky. Learn more about the function of each and their unique histories below.
Air Traffic Control
Every moment of every day, thousands of aircraft safely cross the skies over the United States. Each is carefully watched and directed to its destination by an interconnected system of air traffic control along well-chosen routes.
As the popularity for air travel grew in the 1920s, so too did the need for better air traffic control around the nation's air routes and especially around airports. At first, airlines controlled their own traffic. However, after a series of publicized accidents in the mid-1930s, including a crash which killed New Mexico Senator Bronson Cutting, the federal government stepped in. In 1936, the Commerce Department accepted nationwide responsibility for air traffic control, though this would not be the end of the system's growing pains.
Pictured: Handling the control tower at NAS Charleston, South Carolina, are specialists third class Nora Scott and Virginia Chenoweth.
The Federal Aviation Administration
The FAA is mainly responsible for the advancement, safety, and regulation of air travel. It also watches over the development of air traffic control systems and commercial space travel.
The Civil Aeronautics Board
Created in 1940 from the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) merged the regulatory functions of the Interstate Commerce Commission, Post Office, and Commerce Department. It would set airline fares and routes for four decades. The CAB favored a system anchored by a few large, well-financed airlines—United, American, Eastern, and TWA—with several regional airlines flying north-south routes. Limited competition ensured stability and allowed the CAB to control the young industry's growth.
From CAB to FAA
A series of airliner accidents and rapid increases in aircraft performance and airport congestion spurred the federal government to again reorganize its regulatory powers. Created on January 1, 1959, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) absorbed some of the regulatory authority that had once belonged to the CAB. It quickly moved to improve the management and safety of the nation's airways, while the CAB continued to set airline routes and fares. When the Department of Transportation was created in 1967, the FAA became the Federal Aviation Administration, as we know it today.
The Civil Aeronautics Board sign is removed after becoming the Federal Aviation Agency on January 1, 1959.
In late 1959, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) released its “Age 60 Rule,” which provided that pilots over 60 could not participate in “part 121 operations.” These operations include piloting large commercial passenger aircraft, smaller propeller aircraft with 10 or more passenger seats, and common carriage operations of all-cargo aircraft with a payload capacity of 7500 pounds—essentially forcing mandatory retirement for all airline pilots as soon as they reached age 60. As his 60th birthday rapidly approached, Captain Michael Gitt decided he did not want to retire.
An Ever Growing Need for Airline Security
As flying grew increasingly popular, airlines became attractive targets for hijackers and terrorists. The hijacking of a National Airlines jet to Havana, Cuba, in 1961 sparked a decade-long rash of similar acts. By the late 1960s, political terrorists had attacked airliners and airports to draw attention to their causes.
In response, the FAA placed armed sky marshals aboard airliners. In 1973 it began using metal detectors and X-ray machines to search for weapons and explosives. Despite such measures, airlines remained vulnerable.
In the 1980s, the FAA and the airlines instituted further security measures:
- Searching the interior of every of airliner before the first flight each day
- Guarding aircraft while on the ground
- Inspecting the property of all maintenance and support personnel
- Matching checked baggage with the names of passengers
- Questioning passengers to ensure they have not accepted packages from strangers
Transportation Security Administration
On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airliners in the United States and used them to kill more than 3,000 people. Two airliners destroyed the World Trade Center towers in New York, a third flew into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and the fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania after its passengers courageously fought back. In response to September 11, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of November 2001.
This animation was created by NASA using FAA air traffic control data from September 11, 2001. It shows the rapid grounding of air traffic across the US, and redirection of incoming international traffic, in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Time is at lower left, number of planes in the air lower right. At 9:06am, FAA issued a ground stop to all traffic not yet departed that would encounter NY airspace ["tier one"- NY, DC, Boston, Cleveland] . A series of rapid decisions followed, including redirecting inbound traffic away from NY and warning airplanes in the air of potential cockpit intrusion. At 9:45am, FAA Command Center decided to close all US airspace for the first time in history. Within a few hours, all commercial air traffic was grounded. This animation is displayed in the National Air and Space Museum's "America by Air" exhibition.
Perspectives from September 11, 2001
These terrorist attacks, the most deadly in U.S. history, caused even more extensive security measures to be imposed upon airports, airlines, and air travelers. TSA soon took over airport security and installed a new federal workforce to screen passengers and baggage. TSA became part of the newly formed Department of Homeland Security in 2003.
Access to boarding areas, once open to anyone carrying virtually anything, is now tightly restricted, and every passenger is carefully screened.
In 2009, US Airways flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River. That incident would later become known as the "Miracle on the Hudson." What did we learn from that crash, and how do investigators use scientific evidence to improve safety in the skies? In this episode of STEM in 30 we take a look at the science of safety.