Tonight, there is a new era in domestic air travel - and it was ushered by the terrifying hijacking that happened on Thursday. Gone are the days where you could just hop on a plane at any of the municipal airstrips without a security check. That all changed when a hijacker boarded a plane with a knife, stabbed two passengers and the pilot, and he was eventually killed by a passenger who had a gun.
Now new security measures will ensure that every passenger is screened and that there is at least one police officer at every municipal airport- and that could be just the start.
But what do those measures look like? Courtney Menzies took a flight today to find out. Here is her story.
Last Thursday, Tropic Air passengers across the country boarded their flights with their personal items and without being searched by security. But after a flight from Corozal Town was hijacked at knifepoint by 49 year old American National Akinyela Taylor, new security measures were instantly put into place.
As we saw today at the airports In Belize City and San Pedro, passengers can no longer take a personal item with them - it must be handed over as cargo before boarding. Men were also searched by a police officer with a handheld metal detector while women were asked if they were carrying weapons by another officer, who also checked their bags.
And this morning on Sunup on 7, the Commissioner of Police stated that boarding an airstrip should have the same level of security as an international flight.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We are accustomed to the relaxed security at the commercial aerodromes in Belize we have the tendency of reaching at the airstrip, 5 minutes before the flight takes off enjoying the fact that we are not searched and just go straight on board the flight that has been occurring for quite some time, certainly the time has arrived for us to revisit that and put more stringent measures in place now in terms of how we operate at the different aerodromes. To be up in a flight and to have a person holding a flight hostage is not a good feeling like they said, anticipation of death is worse than death itself so it is something we certainly need to look at in terms of heightening the security at the different aerodromes in Belize."
According to a press release from the Belize Airport Authority, such security measures were already in the works and were about to be phased in over the next few weeks. If that is accurate, Thursday's incident has sped up the process.
And - while a licensed firearm on Thursday's flight may have made a life saving difference - truth is that should never be carried by a civilian passenger on a domestic flight - and it probably never will be again:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I think we should adopt the same principal that applies to international flights, if you are moving a firearm from not just international but even domestic in the US if you are moving with a firearm, the firearm normally goes to the bottom of the plane, it cannot be loaded so I would say that we could adopt that same principle yeah."
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