Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
A piece of legislation to beef up passenger airliner security passed the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday.
The Saracini Aviation Safety Act passed the House and will head to the U.S. Senate as part of a multi-part bill that includes the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. The bill passed after a bipartisan agreement between House and Senate leaders that will require all new airliners to have lightweight wire-mesh gates installed to provide a secondary barrier to the cockpit.
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The bill has been backed by Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick and Lower Makefield resident Ellen Saracini. She has advocated for the change for years in memory of her late husband Captain Victor Saracini, who flew United Flight 175 before it was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center in 2001.
“More than 15 years after terrorists breached the cockpit of my husband’s airplane on September 11, 2001, our skies are still susceptible to similar acts of terrorism. It is my mission to work with Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick 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,” Saracini said in a statement.
The congressman and Saracini aim to get the secondary barriers in all passenger aircraft, but the House and Senate leadership agreed to change the bill to only include new passenger aircraft.
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“This bipartisan agreement is a major victory for airline safety. We will continue to fight alongside Ellen Saracini until all current passenger aircraft contain secondary barriers,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.
Fitzpatrick and Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of northern New Jersey stood together at the Garden of Reflection September 11, 2001 memorial in Lower Makefield last month to call for the bill to passed.
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