FAA hijacker profile

dfs346

Pre-Flight
Joined
Sep 12, 2020
Messages
41
Location
Bedford, England
Display Name

Display name:
DFS346
Between November 1969 and January 1973, the FAA attempted to use a profiling system to identify airplane passengers who might be hijackers. The profile had about 25 components. According to Andrew Hay at https://www.ibm.com/blogs/systems/a...line-security-hijackings-and-metal-detectors/, former FAA chief psychologist John T Dailey and various other authors, some of these components were:
  • nervousness
  • sweating
  • amount of baggage checked or carried
  • method of payment
  • whether traveling alone
  • whether the passenger rented a car
  • height [?]
  • failure to maintain eye contact
  • an inadequate level of knowledge or concerns about luggage.
The profile was superseded (according to Dr Dailey, "replaced") in January 1973 by the introduction of metal detectors, and as far as I can determine, it was no longer used as a primary screening system. It is now only of historical interest.

My question: does anyone know what the full list of components was?
 
Last edited:
Here's a question for anyone who remembers the "hijacker profile" that the FAA attempted to use between November 1969 and January 1973. The profile had about 25 components, which have never been publicly enumerated. According to various authors, some of these components were:
* nervousness
* sweating
* amount of baggage checked or carried
* method of payment
* whether traveling alone
* whether the passenger rented a car
* height [?]
* failure to maintain eye contact
* an inadequate level of knowledge or concerns about luggage.
Does anyone know what the full list of components was?

Lol

Maybe the FAA could read your tea leaves for you too

So my wife runs to a gate because her first connecting flight breaks down, she will meet most of those aspects.
 
Here's a question for anyone who remembers the "hijacker profile" that the FAA attempted to use between November 1969 and January 1973. The profile had about 25 components, which have never been publicly enumerated. According to various authors, some of these components were:
* nervousness
* sweating
* amount of baggage checked or carried
* method of payment
* whether traveling alone
* whether the passenger rented a car
* height [?]
* failure to maintain eye contact
* an inadequate level of knowledge or concerns about luggage.
Does anyone know what the full list of components was?
You forgot a big one - no return flight!
 
You forgot a big one - no return flight!


If I was going to have it be my last thing on earth, I wouldn’t just buy a round trip?

So silly
 
Here's a question for anyone who remembers the "hijacker profile" that the FAA attempted to use between November 1969 and January 1973. The profile had about 25 components, which have never been publicly enumerated. According to various authors, some of these components were:
* nervousness
* sweating
* amount of baggage checked or carried
* method of payment
* whether traveling alone
* whether the passenger rented a car
* height [?]
* failure to maintain eye contact
* an inadequate level of knowledge or concerns about luggage.
Does anyone know what the full list of components was?

I agree with height because there was even a song explaining short people had no reason to live.
 
How about a short list of which passenger might disrupt the flight?

1. The one that is drunk.
 
Here's a question for anyone who remembers the "hijacker profile" that the FAA attempted to use between November 1969 and January 1973. The profile had about 25 components, which have never been publicly enumerated. According to various authors, some of these components were:
* nervousness
* sweating
* amount of baggage checked or carried
* method of payment
* whether traveling alone
* whether the passenger rented a car
* height [?]
* failure to maintain eye contact
* an inadequate level of knowledge or concerns about luggage.
Does anyone know what the full list of components was?
You looking for what behaviors to avoid displaying? Nice try Al Qaeda, not today.;)
 
Bought a return ticket - from wherever he was planning to hijack the plane to LOL.
 
I always looked for the guy carrying this:

146803109-time-bomb-with-analog-alarm-clock.jpg
 
It’s also fear porn, the chance of a terrorist taking over the plane is laughably low.
 
If I was going to have it be my last thing on earth, I wouldn’t just buy a round trip?

So silly

The Osamas of the world run a tight ship, and refuse to pay for segments which aren't intended to be used :D
 
It’s also fear porn, the chance of a terrorist taking over the plane is laughably low.

Actually, I would rephrase it to say that the chance of a terrorist being on the plane is low. But we've seen what's happened in the past the success rate of taking the plane over has been pretty high.
 
I’m so glad no one here is making a crass joke about if such person still gets airline miles.
 
The 1993 World Trade Center bombers were caught because one of them tried to get his deposit refunded for the rental truck they blew up.
 
The 1993 World Trade Center bombers were caught because one of them tried to get his deposit refunded for the rental truck they blew up.
That is chutzpah
 
A few years ago friend was flying commercial with only a small bag for an overnight trip. He got called out of the security line and questioned a bit. Ever since he brings at least a tiny suitcase.
 
Those are weird things to judge someone on, especially height and rental car.
I'm tall for a woman, does that make me more, or less, of a risk.
 
I watched some of those boarder guard shows

“durp, he seemed nervous” but the guard in the video seemed more nervous than the traveler
 
Back around 1972 or so, I was pulled aside by security as I was boarding a flight from LaGuardia (LGA) to Miami (MIA). Although I fit none of the above listed criteria, I was interrogated for about 10 minutes before I was allowed to board the airplane. I don't understand why I was selected, because I'm such a clean-cut nice guy. Well, on the other hand, I might have been a little scruffy and suffering a hangover.
 
In 1969? I think short people were considered dangerous unless they were comedians. They had to pretend it was science, because otherwise it would be too obviously pointing at "foreigners". Pretty sure the same type of people who came up with whatever that list was then are working on the same types of things now, just with more references at the end of their articles.
 
I have a good story about profiling, carrying cash on airplanes, and buying one way tickets with cash.

In the early 90s, I went all over the US tearing out abandoned data centers in exchange for the equipment and scrap. Building owners wanted it gone. I took out the UPS systems, raised floor, Liebert A/Cs, Piller 415 Hz motorgenerators, switchgear, and wire. Lots of wire. Big wire.

I had a F-350 crew cab with a capper, the truck was full of tools, and five laborers traveling with me. They had become skilled and adept at performing the specialized work of dismantling these data centers. In the first week of January 1992, we finished a job in Boston, then drove to Miami to take out the former primary data center of a large multi-branch bank.

The data center was located on a canal, and the incoming electrical service from the metering enclosure and service disconnect on the building exterior to the primary distribution switchboard in the main electrical room had four parallel feeders of 1100 KCMIL copper that were over 800' long. That size wire weighs over a pound a foot after being stripped, and at the time #1 bright copper was paying just over $1/lb. I rented a forklift to chain onto the wire and pull it out of the conduits into the empty parking lot. It lay in the sun for a while, and then we hand stripped it.

Every time we got enough to load the truck bed, I would go to the scrapyard. Each load was over 2,000 lbs. There were six of these loads, and a bunch of smaller wire. Scrapyards pay cash, and when we were done, I had about $15K. I left it in the bank bands, and stuck it in my briefcase.

We loaded five eighteen wheelers with the equipment we took out.

We had been on the road for over a month. I told the guys to take me to the airport, I'll see you in Dallas. I paid $400 cash for a one way ticket, called my girlfriend, and told her when to pick me up.

The plane landed at DFW airport, and I went to pick up my luggage. My girlfriend was at the baggage claim waiting for me. I grabbed my bag, turned to leave, and a guy in his 20s with an earring and wearing a red jogging suit stepped in front of me. He flipped out a badge, and said "I'm with the DEA. Do you have any large amounts of cash on you?" I'm thinking "Oh, f***", and say "Yeah, I have about fourteen grand in my briefcase." He says "I'd like to see it."

I replied "Right here?", and he says "Take a look around." Suddenly I notice about six guys in dark suits around the crowded baggage claim watching me closely. Then the guy looks at my girlfriend and says "Are you with him?" No one ever said she was dumb, she holds up her palms and says "Nope, I'm just giving him a ride." Thanks, sweetie.

So I opened my briefcase, pulled out the manila envelope stuffed with hundred dollar bills, and hand it to him. He took it, opened it up, looked inside, handed it back to me, and said "Thanks, you can go." I'm about to seize up, and I said "That's it?"

He says "Yeah, the guys we're looking for don't leave bank bands on their cash".

Talk about relief...I thought I was going to jail for a long time, LOL.

After we had walked away from the baggage claim, I asked my girlfriend "What the heck was the 'I'm just giving him a ride' about?" She replied "I thought I was going to be bailing you out of jail, so I didn't want them to think we were together."

That was pretty good thinking under pressure.

:D
 
Last edited:
Untitled.png
Back around 1972 or so, I was pulled aside by security as I was boarding a flight from LaGuardia (LGA) to Miami (MIA). Although I fit none of the above listed criteria, I was interrogated for about 10 minutes before I was allowed to board the airplane.

I don't understand why I was selected, because I'm such a clean-cut nice guy. Well, on the other hand, I might have been a little scruffy and suffering a hangover.

Did you looked like this, without the smile?
47385.jpg
 
Last edited:
I have a good story about profiling, carrying cash on airplanes, and buying one way tickets with cash.

In the early 90s, I went all over the US tearing out abandoned data centers in exchange for the equipment and scrap. Building owners wanted it gone. I took out the UPS systems, raised floor, Liebert A/Cs, Piller 415 Hz motorgenerators, switchgear, and wire. Lots of wire. Big wire.

I had a F-350 crew cab with a capper, the truck was full of tools, and five laborers traveling with me. They had become skilled and adept at performing the specialized work of dismantling these data centers. In the first week of January 1992, we finished a job in Boston, then drove to Miami to take out the former primary data center of a large multi-branch bank.

The data center was located on a canal, and the incoming electrical service from the metering enclosure and service disconnect on the building exterior to the primary distribution switchboard in the main electrical room had four parallel feeders of 1100 KCMIL copper that were over 800' long. That size wire weighs over a pound a foot after being stripped, and at the time #1 bright copper was paying just over $1/lb. I rented a forklift to chain onto the wire and pull it out of the conduits into the empty parking lot. It lay in the sun for a while, and then we hand stripped it.

Every time we got enough to load the truck bed, I would go to the scrapyard. Each load was over 2,000 lbs. There were six of these loads, and a bunch of smaller wire. Scrapyards pay cash, and when we were done, I had about $15K. I left it in the bank bands, and stuck it in my briefcase.

We loaded five eighteen wheelers with the equipment we took out.

We had been on the road for over a month. I told the guys to take me to the airport, I'll see you in Dallas. I paid $400 cash for a one way ticket, called my girlfriend, and told her when to pick me up.

The plane landed at DFW airport, and I went to pick up my luggage. My girlfriend was at the baggage claim waiting for me. I grabbed my bag, turned to leave, and a guy in his 20s with an earring and wearing a red jogging suit stepped in front of me. He flipped out a badge, and said "I'm with the DEA. Do you have any large amounts of cash on you?" I'm thinking "Oh, f***", and say "Yeah, I have about fourteen grand in my briefcase." He says "I'd like to see it."

I replied "Right here?", and he says "Take a look around." Suddenly I notice about six guys in dark suits around the crowded baggage claim watching me closely. Then the guy looks at my girlfriend and says "Are you with him?" No one ever said she was dumb, she holds up her palms and says "Nope, I'm just giving him a ride." Thanks, sweetie.

So I opened my briefcase, pulled out the manila envelope stuffed with hundred dollar bills, and hand it to him. He took it, opened it up, looked inside, handed it back to me, and said "Thanks, you can go." I'm about to seize up, and I said "That's it?"

He says "Yeah, the guys we're looking for don't leave bank bands on their cash".

Talk about relief...I thought I was going to jail for a long time, LOL.

After we had walked away from the baggage claim, I asked my girlfriend "What the heck was the 'I'm just giving him a ride' about?" She replied "I thought I was going to be bailing you out of jail, so I didn't want them to think we were together."

That was pretty good thinking under pressure.

:D


You were detained by armed men for….having money?
 
It wasn’t that low in the 70s.

Sure it was

How many flight, how many hijacks, do some math, probably more likely to die driving to the airport
 
Back
Top