ABSTRACT
Commercial aviation historically has been a favourite target of terrorists who have viewed airlines as nationally-labelled containers of hostages in the case of hijackings, or victims in the case of sabotage. The terrorist assault on airliners set off a deadly contest between bomb makers and airline security which has continued for the past quarter century with security gradually gaining. In the early 1970’s, more than 30 percent of international terrorist attacks were targeted against commercial aviation; it is less than 10 percent today. The 1970’s saw at least 18 attempts to sabotage aircraft with eight crashes. The 1980’s saw an increase in attempts with six crashes. There have been far fewer attempts in the 1990’s with only one crash.
