Newark Liberty International
Airport is marking a milestone – today is the 20th anniversary
of security being taken over by the Transportation Security Administration.
TSA was created in the wake of
9/11 to strengthen security at airports across the country. There were
225 employees when it started at the airport. Now, there are 1,300.
TSA leaders
thanked those employees who have been with the agency since its start. Within a
year after 9/11, TSA assumed responsibility for security at airports across the
country and deployed a federal workforce to screen all commercial airline
passengers and baggage.
United Flight 93 departed from
Newark’s Terminal A on Sept. 11, 2001 – its intended target was the U.S.
Capitol Building, but the passengers on the flight fought back and the
plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 people on
board. Since the creation of the agency, TSA has introduced a wide
variety of state-of-the-art technologies to screen passengers, cargo and
baggage.
"Without TSA, our country
cannot prosper, so again, thank you for 20 years of service,” said former
TSA Federal Security Director Donald Drummer.
There are now 60,000 TSA
employees across the country.