Southwest Airlines begins flying first plane with secondary cockpit barrier | Latest Travel News
By David Shepardson
(GWN) -Southwest Airlines started Friday flying its first jet with a secondary barrier to the flight deck designed to forestall intrusions.
The plane – a Boeing 737 MAX 8 which was delivered in current days – took off Friday afternoon from Phoenix to Denver, the airline said.
Secondary obstacles — long sought after the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults that uncovered the dangers of insufficient flight detect safety — are essential to aviation security, pilots unions have argued.
The flight is a milestone that marks the start of the roll out of the protection function across the new U.S. industrial airline fleet in the approaching years.
Boeing and Airbus told GWN they’ve begun delivering airplanes with the obstacles under the Federal Aviation Administration regulation announced in 2023 that took impact on Monday.
Last month, the FAA agreed to give airways until late July 2026 to put the obstacles in newly delivered planes into use. Most major carriers have told the FAA they plan to take benefit of the extension and not immediately start utilizing the obstacles.
Southwest has opted to immediately start complying as they take supply of new airplanes and expects to take supply of about 25 further Boeing airplanes this yr that could have the obstacles.
“We felt like we could get it done and put it in production as soon as the aircraft was ready,” said Justin Jones, Southwest’s govt vice president for operations
After the hijacking of 4 U.S. airplanes on September 11, 2001, the FAA adopted requirements for flight deck security to make them resistant to forcible intrusion and unauthorized entry.
The FAA rule requires plane producers to set up a second bodily barrier on new planes used in industrial passenger service in the United States, but doesn’t require current planes to be retrofitted. Plane makers without FAA certification of obstacles don’t yet need to be in compliance.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and Chris Sanders)
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