On May 15, 2024, a U.S. federal law was passed mandating flightdeck (‘cockpit’) secondary barriers on all existing aircrafts:
https://whistleblower.org/blog/whistleblowers-fight-for-post-9-11-safety-becomes-law/
From GROK, the Artificial Intelligence platform on X.com:
“Given the balance between immediate costs and long-term savings, the modular secondary barrier system would likely be the more prudent choice for overall cost-effectiveness ... the safer choice for both the immediate and extended future of flight safety.”
https://x.com/i/grok/share/dkU8DWMjKHwrjAPkFo1MNRPlj
From Chat GPT, the Artificial Intelligence platform:
“[T]he modular secondary barrier system ... is more cost-effective both in the short-term and long-term ... is far superior to a fixed secondary barrier system for ensuring the safety of passengers and air crews.”
https://chatgpt.com/share/677aa7ab-e3d0-800c-9fbe-354f1b577d1c
The modular secondary barrier U.S. Patent No. 10,850,865:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10850865B2/
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9/11 Commission Report (published in 2004) — Page 158:
“While in Karachi, [‘9/11 principal architect’ Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (‘KSM’)] also discussed how to case flights in Southeast Asia. KSM told [the hijackers] to watch the [cockpit] doors at takeoff and landing, to observe whether the [pilots] went to the lavatory during the flight, and to note whether the flight attendants brought food into the cockpit.”
Page 245:
“The best time to storm the cockpit would be about 10-15 minutes after takeoff, when the cockpit doors typically were opened for the first time. ... While [lead hijacker Mohammed Atta] mentioned general ideas such as using a hostage or claiming to have a bomb, he was confident the cockpit doors would be opened and did not consider breaking them down a viable idea.”
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1) Minimal Impact on Cabin: A modular barrier system is minimally invasive to aircraft cabins, significantly reducing installation time and costs. It offers a fraction of the expense and retrofit downtime compared to fixed barriers that are built into the cabin.
2) Ease of Maintenance: A modular barrier can be removed or replaced by one person for routine and unscheduled maintenance, helping to avoid late departures, aircraft downtime, and revenue loss. Similar to a car’s spare tire, a spare modular barrier can be stored inside the aircraft’s cargo bay wall or ceiling.
3) Emergency Egress Safety: A modular barrier does not impede potential emergency egress. Unlike fixed barriers that may mechanically or electrically jam shut after a hard landing—forcing pilots to escape through the small windshield opening, risking serious injury, smoke inhalation, or fire—a modular barrier ensures safer egress.
4) Protection Against Sabotage: Fixed barriers are exposed in the main cabin, making them vulnerable to sabotage by bad actors using small tools, magnets, wax, or super-glue. A bad actor could compromise the barrier before a flight from the U.S. and notify another bad actor to breach the cockpit on a subsequent leg of the journey. In contrast, a modular barrier is secured from in-flight sabotage by being stowed inside a locked faux drink cart, equipped with a tamper-circuit alarm.
5) Strength and Durability: A modular barrier is strong enough to withstand an attack for at least 5 seconds, meeting the requirement established in the 2011 Radio Technical Commission on Aeronautics report (No. RTCA DO-329).
6) Chemical Attack Mitigation: A modular barrier effectively mitigates the risk of an aerosolized chemical attack, such as those involving fentanyl or carfentanil, in accordance with TSA policies and warnings such as this one to The New York Times on June 21, 2018: https://web.archive.org/web/20180621200706/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/travel/tsa-powder-rules.html
7) Firearm Resistance: A modular barrier can be designed to be handgun fragment-proof, in compliance with 14 C.F.R. § 25.795.
8) Redundancy Features: A modular barrier includes three layers of redundancy to prevent defeat by a bad actor:
- a glass peephole for flight attendants,
- a motion sensor with an alarm detecting any movement toward the barrier, and
- a wireless camera system for pilots to monitor the aisle before unlocking the cockpit.
9) Lightweight and User-Friendly: A modular barrier is lightweight and spring-loaded, allowing even an 80-year-old or older flight attendant to deploy or stow it alone.
Robert J. MacLean modular mobile cockpit secondary barrier — U.S. PATENT PENDING No. 15/799391