In-flight security has been grabbing headlines ever since Sept. 11.

Congress has given airline pilots the go-ahead to carry firearms in the cockpit after extensive training. Last May, Congress addressed in-flight security by appropriating $100 million of a requested $300 million for the airlines to complete cabin and cockpit security modifications.

Major U.S. airlines completed installation of cockpit door modifications in all commercial airliners by March 1, 2003. The doors have been fortified or replaced to ensure cabin passengers are unable to enter the cockpit. Congress has also mandated that flight attendants receive personal defense and cabin defense training.

Cabin monitoring systems are another component of in-flight security. Airlines around the world are installing the systems, which feature CCTV feeds monitoring airline cabins for pilots enclosed behind a bullet-proof door.

“We have products that have been approved for cabin security for some time,” says Mike Neder, director of airline sales for DAC International, Austin, Texas — a company that has teamed with two other companies, Garden Grove, Calif.-based Hollingsead International and Securaplane, Tucson, Ariz. — to develop and market the Cabin Alert and Monitoring System (CAMS).

“If you proposed surveillance systems to the airlines before Sept. 11, you'd starve to death,” Neder adds.

Shortly after Sept. 11, the security industry began marketing the systems to airlines, led by such giants as Honeywell, which combined expertise from several of its divisions to devise an audio-video cabin monitoring solution that features crash-survivable video recorders and encrypted communications. Other systems feature monitoring capabilities from a Personal Data Assistant (PDA) or a mobile workstation within the cockpit. Major commercial airlines have implemented the same or similar systems.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has enacted a measure to install video monitoring equipment on all its airliners by Nov. 2003. Already, British Airways, Lufthansa and Finnair have begun installing the systems. Some of the systems transmit images to a ground-based station via satellite, where events on the plane can be watched in real-time.

On the American front, JetBlue Airlines was the first to install cabin monitoring systems in April of 2002. The Cabin Surveillance System was supplied by LiveTV, Palm Bay, Fla., and not only provides satellite television stations to passengers, but also broadcasts a live feed of the cabin, which can be monitored either on the ground or from the cockpit. Continental Airlines initiated a pilot project in May to equip a Boeing 777 aircraft with a cabin monitoring system. After in-service trials and review, Continental will evaluate extending the program to other aircraft.