Certainly, it's not a new phenomenon: aircraft hijacking began many decades ago. The first reported incident took place on 21 February 1931, in Arequipa, Peru when Byron Rickards (USA) was flying a Ford Tri-motor from Lima to Arequipa. Upon landing, he was surrounded by a group of armed people belonging to an on its way from Macau to Hong Kong when it was hijacked, killing all 25 people who were on board when the flight crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Another serious hijacking event took place in 1968. PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) followers hijacked Flight 426 of El Al Airlines of Israel which was flying from London to Rome. Every hostage wasreleased at different points. Hijacking became a serious issue as the number of aircraft hijacked began increasing. Between 1958 and 1967, almost 50 aircraft were hijacked. In 1977, Lufthansa Flight 181 was hijacked, again by PFLP supporters. All hostages were saved, while two of the hijackers were killed during the rescue operation. A similar incident occurredin 1976 when two PFLP supporters and two members of the German Revolutionary Cells hijacked in midair Air France Flight 139 from Athens. The hijackers' demands were political, including releasing imprisoned supporters. After a commando operation, 105 hostages were freed. In 1977, a Malaysian aircraft was hijacked. The plane crashed in

Kampong Ladang killing seven crew members and 93 passengers. In 1985, Air India Flight 182 was hijacked and the plane went down after a planted bomb exploded, killing 329 passengers. In 1985, an Iraqi Airways flight was hijacked, and 60 people died, and in 1986, an Egypt Air flight was hijacked. Another major incident was the hijacking of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961,which led to the deaths of 122 people in 1996. And there have been many other deadly incidents in the history of commercial air transport. After every hijacking, the aviation sector has tried to improve security measures. By the 1970s and 1980s, countries started to have stringent security checks before the commencement of each flight. In 1973, Cuba and the USA entered into an agreement to prosecute hijackers. Better scanning machines had been introduced by then. The number of hijacking incidents dropped as a result of such measures, though they found ways and means of getting around them. September 11th was the result of such efforts. On Septembe2001, four11, commercial airline flights were hijacked andused in suicide attacks on major landmarks in New York City and Washington, DC. Boeing 767 aircraft (American Airlines and United Airlines) departed Boston's Logan International Airport and were flown into the 110-story buildings of the World Trade Centre, resulting in the collapse of those buildings and the death of a large number of people.

Simultaneously, the other hijacked flight of American Airlines departed Washington, DC's Dulles Airport and was flown into a portion of the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defense. Another flight was also hijacked but did not end up in the targeted destination. What set this hijacking apart was that the target of the hijackers was not just thepassengers and crew on board, but other people on the ground. The attacks forced the airline industry to renew and strengthen its focus on security. Bulletproof and locked cockpit doors became standard on commercial passenger aircraft. Passengers could not enter the cockpit. Monitoring of cabins is also possible nowadays. Hand luggage and body checks became verystringent, with each and every passenger manually checked. The items one was permitted to carry in hand luggage were strictly limited. Despite having these stringent measures on aviation security in place, a few incidents have occurred in the intervening years.

Read the case study carefully and answer the following questions:

1. Discuss the changes in the focus of hijacking attempts since they began.
2. Describe how security measures were improved over the last eight decades.