FAA was focused on explosives, not suicide pilots (They were warned)

WASHINGTON -- Before Sept. 11, the Federal Aviation Administration focused on the danger of explosives aboard planes rather than a suicide hijacking, even though its own security officers warned terrorists might try to crash an airliner, a federal panel said Tuesday.

The FAA's Office of Civil Aviation Security considered the risk of a suicide hijacking at least as early as March 1998, says the preliminary report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. snip

At Tuesday's hearing, the commission provided documents showing the FAA was aware of the possibility of suicide hijackings but did not pass the information along to airlines.

In a presentation to airline and airport officials in early 2001, the FAA discounted the threat of a suicide hijacking because there was ''no indication that any group is currently thinking in that direction.'' And when the agency issued a terrorism warning to air carriers in July 2001, it noted the risk of explosives inside luggage but did not mention suicide hijackings.

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