Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Thursday that terrorist groups are still looking for ways to carrying out an attack on a U.S.-bound commercial airplane.
When asked about the threat of a laptop explosion or chemical gas attack aboard a U.S.-bound or domestic flight, Nielsen told House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul that the threat “it is a pernicious one.”
“They really do want to take down an airliner. I mean, I think that is clear. They have not given up on that as an aspiration,” added Nielsen, who spoke at the Capitol Hill National Security Forum Thursday morning.
Nielsen, who has served since December, said the department is focused on thwarting current threats while also having to look ahead at what the next concern will be within air safety.
“It really requires a much more forward-leaning posture because of the nature of how they’re quickly making explosives smaller, they’re hiding them better in everyday objects,” she said.
A terror attack aboard a U.S. airliner has not taken place since the Sept. 11, 2001. In recent years, the Transportation Security Administration has switched to Commutative Topology scanning machines that give agents a 3D, 360-degree look at a passenger’s body.
Last December, the United Nations Security Council unanimously agreed to share passenger information regarding transnational terrorist groups and foreign terrorist fighters.
In May 2017, DHS banned passengers on international flights to the U.S. from carrying on laptop computers.
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