Risk Assessment: Tools, Techniques, and Their Applications

22.3 Case Study 3: Overview

Since the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centers, public interest has been focused on our level of national security. This national security concern has concentrated a great deal on airport security. This section identifies some of the vulnerable areas of airport security screening processes that allow a person with a weapon or destructive device to board a plane, causing a life-threatening event. This chapter also specifies other areas in the airport screening process, where packages or luggage containing deadly weapons can pass through security procedures and enter a plane and cause destruction. This study explores the possible ways and avenues that can be taken to improve and increase the reliability of the security screening processes of airports in ensuring a safe working and living environment.

22.3.1 Introduction

The intent of the following aviation risk assessment was to explore the reliability of airport security systems in our national airports and fulfill the requirements of the University of Idaho course ITED 504—aviation, medical, and process risk assessment. The sequence of tasks required to conduct this study consist of the following: identifying airport security processes, developing a list of components used in the security evaluation, and designing a flow diagram of security processes. A software program called Saphire, developed by the Idaho Environmental and Engineering Laboratory for use in probability and risk analysis for the Nuclear ...