Questions resurface after ‘sophisticated’ bombing at busy Turkey airport

Airport security is once again at the forefront of people’s minds after the latest terror attack that killed at least 41 people and wounded hundreds more at Turkey’s largest airport.

The bombings on Tuesday follow the March bombing in Brussels where 32 people were killed and more than 300 wounded. It prompted KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien to wonder what, if anything, can be done to fully protect airports.

Former NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker told Seattle’s Morning News that the attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport was coordinated and fairly sophisticated. Reports following the bombing suggest the attackers took advantage of the chaos created during a shootout to get inside; two attackers blew themselves up inside the airport, while the third waited outside for a flood of people to emerge, before detonating a bomb.

“Two individuals got in, but not very far,” Rosenker said. “Which is good, because we would have seen more carnage.”

The question remains: How do we prevent further attacks?

“It’s very difficult to prevent these,” Rosenker explained, adding that the key is to stop them before the attack begins. “It’s very difficult to get them on site. If they are already on site, there will be death, there will be injuries.”

Of course, it is more difficult to carry out an attack like the one in Turkey in the U.S., Rosenker says. However, they are not 100 percent preventable. Unless an airport is walled off and people enter one by one, they won’t be completely preventable, he added.

Along with tighter security, keeping people moving through security lines is at least a way to prevent a mass-casualty situation — Rosenker says he does not believe the attack will deter people from traveling.

Airports around the globe have been bolstering security since the 1970s following terror attacks. Israel was one of the first to take steps after attackers in 1972 killed 26 people and injured 80 at Lod Airport, now Ben Gurion Airport. Airport security was also strengthened at many points around the world following the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, and in 2006, when British and American intelligence agents uncovered a plot to smuggle liquid explosives through security in an attempt to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners.

CBS News Military Analyst Mike Lyons told Seattle’s Morning News that Turkey has become a target of ISIS because of efforts to stop the flow of radicals into Syria. He says there isn’t much more that can be done, other than building a wall between Turkey and Syria, “as crazy as that sounds,” he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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