Is the TSA making airport security more convenient at the expense of safety?

Twenty-five years ago, two planes took off from Boston's Logan Airport and became part of the deadliest terrorist attack in American history. Since then, airport security has become a massive federal operation built on technology, intelligence and layers of screening.

A WBZ-TV I-Team investigation into those layers raises a troubling question: Is the TSA making airport security faster and more convenient at the expense of safety?

At Logan Airport, air travelers don't seem to pay much attention to routine security announcements. Passengers we spoke to told the I-Team they didn't have any concerns flying and that they felt safe. 

But no one was safe on the two flights that left from Boston on Sept. 11, 2001. Hijackers coming from Maine crashed the planes into the World Trade Center in New York. 

Former FAA Special Agent Brian Sullivan says it never should have happened and the federal government was aware of the vulnerabilities. "We did a sting five months prior to 9/11 and demonstrated at the very same checkpoints that the terrorists used that we could get anything through," Sullivan said. 

In the wake of the terror attacks, the government spent billions on safety, creating the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and instituting policies that included screening checked bags for explosives and reinforcing cockpit doors.

"We have kept the skies safe," TSA Administrator David Cummins told the I-Team. "When it comes to threat detection, we are doing a much better job."

Cummins credits layered security and new technology. "You're going to have e-gates with facial comparison technology, where you can keep your driver's license and your boarding pass in your pocket, and just walk on through the e-gate and then put your bag on a 3D scanner that is going to digitally unpack the bag and be able to see, for example, what's underneath the laptop," Cummins said. "And then you're going to be able to walk through, instead of a magnetometer, you're going to walk through a body scanner, and all of this in precheck will be measured in a matter of seconds, not minutes."

Shoes-off policy lifted

Sullivan says, "The TSA is pushing passenger convenience and speed of processing, but as in the case of the shoe policy, they are not focused enough on security."

The shoe policy was a TSA requirement that passengers remove shoes for screening. It went into effect after Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers. The TSA lifted that requirement despite a March 2026 Inspector General's audit that raised serious questions about the detection equipment.

"So, they hid the report, initially they classified it top secret," Sullivan said. "It was leaked by the Homeland Security OIG. The imagery equipment wasn't 100% successful. It couldn't reliably identify explosives in shoes."

Secondary cockpit barriers

And that's not all. Sullivan claims the biggest hole in security is on the plane itself. Secondary cockpit barriers were never installed leaving the flight attendant's cart the only thing between an open cockpit door and passengers.

"That makes us vulnerable, potentially, to another 9/11-style attack," Sullivan said.

Security experts also say a hijacking today would likely not be successful. Videos of passengers and crew subduing violent travelers suggest the last line of defense may not be the TSA or technology; it may be the people on the plane willing to fight back.

One passenger who just got off a flight told the I-Team, "It was a pretty sedate crowd. We didn't need any duct tape on this flight. So, I'm real happy about that."

After years of delays, in August the FAA put into effect its mandate that all aircraft manufactured after 2025 have a secondary cockpit barrier.