For years, there had been talk of the flight decks of commercial aircraft in the United States getting a second flight deck barrier. This started to become more serious in 2022, when regulators moved forward with a recommendation to implement this change. Then in 2024, we saw the signing of the FAA reauthorization bill, which finalized this.
There’s an interesting update, as one major US airline has taken delivery of its first plane with the new secondary barrier, so we have an example of what this will look like. Is this a sensible development that will make flying safer, or unnecessary and a waste of money?
This was actually proposed many years back — the FAA was supposed to have adopted this rule by 2019 under a 2018 federal law, but the agency didn’t act until more recently. Of course the terrorist attacks of 9/11 changed aviation forever. Since 9/11, we’ve seen the introduction of reinforced flight deck doors, which realistically can’t be broken into.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
