Vintage photos show what airport security was like before 9/11 changed how people fly

Airport security in the 1970s.

Duane Howell/Denver Post via Getty Images

Before 9/11, airport security was far more relaxed than it is today.Friends and family could accompany travelers through security without a boarding pass. Knives and blades were allowed in carry-on bags as long as they were smaller than 4 inches. Private companies, not the government-run Transportation Security Administration, handled screenings.Airport security did evolve over the decades in response to bombings — like the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 — as well as hijackings and other threats. X-ray machines and metal detectors slowly became familiar features, but the experience was vastly different compared to modern air travel.In the aftermath of September 11, airport security transformed almost overnight. These vintage photos show how travelers once navigated a system that now seems unrecognizable.

Before 9/11, checked luggage was not subject to universal explosives screening.

The conveyor belt, pictured in 1955, took baggage to the bus docks at New York's East Side Airlines Terminal.