The Saracini Enhanced Aviation Act of 2021 legislation has been reintroduced into the House of Representatives. The bill is named for the pilot of United Flight 175, Captain Victor Saracini, who was killed by terrorists on September 11, 2001.
The Act would require commercial passenger planes to be equipped with a secondary gate made of wire mesh that would act as a secondary barrier between the flight deck and the main cabin. The gate would block access to the flight deck by unauthorized people, making flights safer and preventing future terrorist attacks.
The Air Line Pilots Association supports the bill. A companion bill will be reintroduced in the Senate.
Ellen Saracini, Captain Saracini’s widow, and an advocate for airline safety, told Bucks Local News, “It is unacceptable that nearly 20 years after terrorists breached the cockpit of my husband’s airplane on September 11, 2001, our skies are still susceptible to repeat this act of terrorism. It is my mission to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect the flight deck aboard our nation’s airliners because, without secondary barriers, we are just as vulnerable today, as we were on that fateful day,” said Saracini. “We need to call on the FAA to act swiftly on legislation that was passed in 2019 to implement a secondary barrier on newly manufactured aircraft for delivery. I’m pleased that a bipartisan group of leaders in the 117th Congress is wasting no time to address retrofitting the remaining aircraft with secondary barriers and continue protecting all who travel in the skies above us.”
