Revealing the 6 anti-hijacking technologies: Missile jamming prevents a repeat of the 9/11 disaster

The picture shows a missile jammer system called "JETEYE" under development, which is being tested on the wing.

Imagine this scenario: When terrorists rush into the cockpit of an airplane, the ground anti-terrorist officers immediately receive an alarm from the airplane. They immediately use remote control to make the cockpit control system out of their control and automatically enter the automatic flight mode without human intervention, and then land at a safe airport under remote control from the ground. There, the elite US Navy SEALs will launch a raid to arrest or kill the terrorists.

This is not as far-fetched as it sounds, but it is already or will soon become a reality. According to government documents, newspaper articles and anti-terrorism experts, remote control of aircraft is just one of many preventive measures. Possible preventive measures include advanced electronic monitoring systems that can intercept signals from suspected terrorists and activate non-lethal weapons or other protective measures to protect the pilots and help the crew thwart hijacking plots.

However, experts also pointed out that it is not enough to just consider preventing terrorist attacks like 9/11, because terrorists will always come up with new and unexpected attacks. Based on this view, security experts have developed more extensive technical prevention measures to help passenger aircraft cope with the terrorist threats they face, including extreme scenarios such as shoulder-fired rocket attacks. Now technicians are stepping up the development of attack prevention systems.

Unfortunately, we have to admit that it may only be a matter of time before the next terrorist attack occurs. As security technology expert Bruce Schneier said: "It is only a matter of time before the next attack on a passenger plane occurs. This kind of thing has always existed and will always exist in the future."

1. Remote control of flight

Aviation giant Boeing has developed technology for remote control systems for aircraft, according to documents from the U.S. National Patent Office, which could, at least in theory, prevent another massive terrorist attack like the 9/11 attacks that toppled the World Trade Center, partially damaged the Pentagon and killed more than 3,000 people.

Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said the company currently has no plans to produce such technology. According to a German newspaper report, German electronics giant Siemens is already working hard on developing similar technology.

2. Biometric technology: Preventing disasters from happening again

The most effective way to prevent hijackings is of course to plug the gaps at the source and stop terrorists from boarding the plane in the first place.

All civil aviation flights in the United States are now equipped with explosive detection devices, which can check the luggage and handbags of all passengers. They are even equipped with the controversial body scanner, which can penetrate people's clothing and see hidden weapons or explosives inside.

According to Paul Ekman, a retired professor of psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, a more advanced device currently under development is a facial emotion recognition system that can identify travelers who may have "deceptive" expressions from a crowd of people.

Other equipment under development includes technology that can remotely identify unstable blood pressure or abnormal heart rate in a crowd. Once these new technologies enter the mature application stage, they will greatly enhance the airport's monitoring capabilities to prevent terrorist attacks.

3. Remote video surveillance

To combat hijacking attempts, scientists have other tricks up their sleeves.

For example, European scientists are developing an onboard surveillance system based on the European Commission's Future Aviation Safety Environment project. This system will install sensors and cameras in the aircraft cabin. This complex equipment may also be able to recognize the facial features of suspicious passengers and detect abnormal movements and other behaviors of passengers.

4. Flash Gun

According to a 2002 U.S. Congressional hearing, the U.S. government is considering equipping civil aviation crews with non-lethal weapons similar to flash grenades. It can emit strong light to cause instant blindness without any life-threatening danger. Such weapons will enable crew members to fight back and subdue criminals without harming ordinary passengers.

5. Ultra-thin close-fitting armor

Finally, a final line of defense can be added to the personal safety of the crew members by adding armor to their bodies.

For example, chemical engineering researchers at the University of Michigan are now developing an ultra-thin fiber material that combines 300 layers of clay minerals and polymer materials.

Meanwhile, scientists from the United States, Europe and China have successfully combined regular cotton with ultra-strong carbon nanotubes to create a super-strong, yet soft and comfortable material for underwear. Although it is a thin layer, its strength is so amazing that it can even withstand bullets.

6. Missile jammer

Some researchers, however, insist we are heading in the wrong direction, pointing out that we have invested too much time and resources in preventing attacks such as the 9/11 bombings. They argue that future terrorists are unlikely to resort to hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings again because the "surprise" effect is lost.

And, according to John Pike, founder and CEO of Global Security, a Washington-based think tank, if a hijacking were to happen again now, the crew and passengers would most likely launch a violent counterattack.

For example, in December 2001, when Richard Reid tried to hijack an American airliner, he was fiercely fought back by the passengers on board. A "rain of shoes" almost made him unable to raise his head. In the end, the passengers thwarted the hijacker's plot; similarly, in 2009, when Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear, the passengers' fightback thwarted his terrible attempt.

"When was the last time terrorists succeeded in hijacking a plane? On 9/11," Pike said. "Logically, a terrorist would not try something like this again unless he thought he had a good chance of success," he said. Pike was equally dismissive of the terrorists' bomb arsenal. "Their bomb experts in Yemen only produce three types of bombs, and none of them are very effective," he said.

What he is most worried about is the threat from the ground. Terrorists may ambush near the airport and use shoulder-fired missiles to attack passenger planes directly. He said that terrorists can easily obtain such weapons, which are freely available on the market in Ukraine and Nigeria. Terrorists may have thousands of such launchers. And according to the New York Times, such weapons are becoming more accessible now due to the chaos in Libya.

According to a report released by the RAND Corporation, a well-known American think tank in 2005, terrorists have successfully used shoulder-fired missiles to threaten flights in Asia, Africa and Central America. To make matters worse, Parker pointed out that because American airports are usually very busy, sometimes the flights circling in the air waiting to land are "like ducks waiting to be slaughtered."

However, Parker said that technologies to deal with this situation are already under development, including a device that uses infrared radiation to interfere with the guidance system of incoming missiles and deflect them from their targets. However, each such device costs millions of dollars and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain each year, making the cost of maintaining a single aircraft unacceptable to aircraft manufacturers and government departments for large-scale deployment of these devices.

This is exactly what Pike is worried about. "It only takes one successful missile attack to paralyze commercial flights around the world for several years." He said: "If you shoot down a flight on Monday and another on Tuesday, how many more do you need to shoot down on Wednesday to further disrupt order? The answer is no, because no one dares to travel by plane at this time."