How airport security is still changing 25 years after 9/11

Few post-9/11 changes are more evident around the world than with airport security. The attacks led to drastically enhanced screenings for travelers and prompted the creation of the Transportation Security Administration.

Twenty-five years later, airport security continues to change.

Two months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, then-President George W. Bush signed a new law that created the TSA, making it one of the fastest-formed federal agencies in the history of the United States.

The TSA started screening passengers in 2002. The agency has evolved over the last 25 years, adapting to new threats and new technology.

At Newark Liberty International Airport, the agency just activated three biometric e-gates that quickly scan TSA PreCheck passengers' faces instead of checking their ID or boarding pass.

It's a far cry from before 9/11, when private contractors conducted much more lax security screenings and allowed friends or family to accompany travelers all the way to the gate.

"We were kind of oblivious until some bad things happened. We realized that the world is not always as nice as we would like," one traveler said.

"Now you don't have to take your shoes off either, so it's kind of like we've gone back," traveler Keenya Justice said.

"I do feel safe flying now. I think the TSA has kind of established a rhythm and has gotten a pretty feel for things," traveler Alex Blanton said.

For TSA Officer John Nesbitt, every passenger, every bag and every interaction is a chance to protect someone at Newark.

"If I could just do a little and save one person, it makes a big difference to me," he said.

He said his experiences on Sept. 11, "100%" influenced his decision to join the TSA. Nesbitt was protecting people back then, too, as manager for a medical transport company in New Jersey.

He spent the chaotic morning dispatching ambulances to victims. After his shift, he says he drove to Lower Manhattan with his boss to see how they could keep helping.

"We had to start running, and my boss cut his leg wide open," Nesbitt said. "Adrenaline was going, and then I seen my boss having a hard time, so I just carried him."

Nesbitt became an officer in 2016.

"I wanted to be part of the team so this don't happen again, and I know that's what our mission is," he said.

Nesbitt says he was always afraid of flying before 9/11, but not anymore.

"I can't control the plane, but I can control what gets on the plane," he said.

He was hesitant to share his story because he says 9/11 brings back bad memories, but 25 years later, those memories still motivate his mission for a safer world.