According to an NBC News report, the theft of a Horizon Air plane last weekend has revealed a vulnerability in airport security.
A former Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) official said that the weakness has been a known problem.
John Pistole, a former head of the TSA and now president of Anderson University, told NBC that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the TSA and others have studied the possibility of "insider threats" that could target airports since before the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"The problem is one that airlines have faced for years," Pistole noted to NBC. "But the challenge is: How do you best identify what's in somebody's mind?" he asked, noting that federal agencies, airlines and airports tend to focus on high-risk threats such as the using a plane as a weapon.
Although it's rare, the mental stability of airline and airport staff has made headlines before.
In 2015, a Germanwings pilot crashed an Airbus A320 full of passengers and it was later revealed that he was experiencing mental health problems.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from radar in 2014, and many still question whether it was the pilots who brought down the plane, believed to have crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean and never been found.
Progress is being made by the Federal Aviation Administration to better identify and evaluate the fitness of pilots and airport staff are also screened and undergo background checks.
Richard Russell, the 29-year-old who stole the Horizon Air plane at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, underwent multiple criminal background checks before he was hired to work for the airline.
Some speculated that Russell might have been suffering from football-related chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE, which in rare cases can cause memory loss, suicidal thoughts and impulsive behavior, but that remains to be determined.
Many in the airline industry are saying that this situation was an "anomaly" or a "truly one-in-a-million experience."
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