The broader influence of the early 1970s bombing campaigns on aviation security is well-documented in aviation history. The development of systematic checked-baggage screening, carry-on screening, the establishment of security zones in airports, and the progressive improvement of explosive detection technology all have their roots, at least in part, in the incidents of this period. The reforms came unevenly and with resistance from airlines and airports that faced the cost and operational inconvenience of security measures; the process took decades rather than years.
Vesna Vulović’s survival did not, of itself, drive aviation security reforms. The crash that produced her survival was one data point among many in the accumulating evidence that the absence of security screening was creating catastrophic vulnerabilities. But her continued public presence — as a living, recognizable consequence of the bombing of a commercial aircraft — kept the human dimension of the aviation security problem in circulation in a way that abstract policy arguments do not.
When she attended events related to aviation or security, when she gave interviews on the anniversaries of the crash, she was, among other things, a reminder that the person who survived the JAT bombing was a real woman with a face and a voice and a story. The twenty-seven who did not survive were also real people, but the dead cannot give interviews. The policies that were eventually adopted to prevent future JAT flights from happening cannot easily be traced to any single person’s advocacy. But the human visibility of what aviation security failures cost — and cost to real human beings — is something that survivors like Vulović provided.