- About the Lecture
-
About the Lecture
The events of 9/11 unleashed a flood of security measures across all dimensions of daily life, many of them aimed at averting repeat attacks on aircraft. So you might imagine that the risks of flying have been much reduced. You’d be wrong, says Arnold Barnett, who has scrutinized the changes in air security regulations, and found them wanting. The cost of another airplane attack, to the airline industry alone, would run around $5 billion. Yet, says Barnett, the government has actually cut four security measures that, according to his cost-benefit analysis, amount to less than the price-tag of a successful terrorist attack: checking photo id’s at airport boarding gates; posing baggage questions to airline passengers; positive bag matches with checked luggage; and a continued ban of U.S. mail on passenger aircraft. While no traveler appreciates delays boarding a plane, and while the minutes of such delays add up to hundreds of millions of dollars per year, citizens would no doubt prefer that all reasonable efforts be made to avoid another tragedy. Relying on airport “sniffer” dogs, computer profiling and better screening devices will not be enough to forestall a terrorist strike, Barnett predicts.Related Videos
-
Airline Safety and the Electoral College
Arnold Barnett
June 4, 2005
-
Air Safety: Nothing But Blue Skies?
Arnold Barnett
June 6, 2009
-
The War in Afghanistan: How to End It
David Miliband
March 10, 2010
-
- About the Speaker
-
About the Speaker
Arnold I. Barnett PhD '73
George Eastman Professor of Management Science, MIT Sloan School of Management
Arnold Barnett is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on aviation security. He uses statistical techniques to probe social and organizational issues. Barnett heads an FAA research team to investigate antiterrorist measures. He has also written at length about crime and punishment, war casualties, and the misuse of statistics in the media.
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences honored him with the 1996 President’s Award for outstanding contributions to the betterment of society. In 2002, he received the President’s Citation from the Flight Safety Foundation for “truly outstanding contributions on behalf of safety.”
Barnett holds a B.A. in Physics from Columbia College and a Ph.D.in Mathematics from MIT. - About the Host
-
About the Host
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the world’s leading business schools — conducting cutting-edge research and providing management education to top students from more than 60 countries. The School is part of MIT’s rich intellectual tradition of education and research.
MIT Sloan began in 1914 as engineering administration curriculum in the MIT Department of Economics and Statistics. The scope and depth of this educational focus have grown steadily in response to advances in the theory and practice of management to today’s broad-based management school.
A program offering a master’s degree in management was established in 1925. The world’s first university-based executive education program — the MIT Sloan Fellows — was created in 1931 under the sponsorship of Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., an 1895 MIT graduate who was then chairman of General Motors. A MIT Sloan Foundation grant established the MIT School of Industrial Management in 1952 with a charge of educating the “ideal manager.”
Video Player
Airline Security: Where are We?
- Arnold I. Barnett PhD '73
- June 5, 2004
- Running Time: 1:07:03
