Passengers flying in the United States are accustomed to seeing cabin crew members use trolleys to block the entrance to the forward galley during those brief instances when the cockpit door is open, such as to accommodate pilots’ use of the lavatory or their meal service.
But starting in mid-2025, any new commercial aircraft operated by scheduled airlines in the US must have a physical secondary barrier installed between the cabin and cockpit (pdf). And in less than five years, existing aircraft are expected to be retrofitted, as outlined by the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which was signed into law on 16 May 2024 by US President Joe Biden.
While the FAA mandated hardened cockpit doors following the tragic events of 9/11, installation of a secondary barrier aims to protect flight decks from an unauthorized intrusion when the cockpit door is open.
During this year’s Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Runway Girl Network got a firsthand look at the ‘Installed Physical Secondary Barrier’ or IPSB that will be line-fitted by Airbus to every A320, A330 and A350 series aircraft headed to US scheduled carriers from the middle of next year onwards.
The cross-platform IPSB system chosen by Airbus is produced by Arnsberg, Germany-headquartered SCHROTH Safety Products GmbH, which also operates an engineering and manufacturing site in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is perhaps best known in commercial aviation for manufacturing seat belts and passenger restraint systems.
“Outside of seatbelts and airbags, we have been actively involved in cockpit security so we’re already a supplier to the A350 cockpit door module,” explained company president Martin Nadol. When the US law mandating IPSBs for new aircraft was signed last year, SCHROTH felt well placed to address the requirements of the rule.
“It’s a safety product just like everything else we do. And we had some ideas,” said Nadol. “Our engineering team was very creative and thought about how to design such a secondary barrier… And we came up with this folded design which saves a lot of space and also offers a lot of flexibility in the installation, also with structural movement of the aircraft and vibration [considered].”
A patented locking mechanism facilitates at least a five-second delay for anyone seeking to open the SCHROTH IPSB and enter the space from the cabin side. If there is an intruder, this delay ensures there is extra time for the pilot “to get back into the cockpit and at least shut the cockpit door”, Nadol explained.
The lightweight structure is installed on the cabin side, before one enters the galley so it effectively creates a mantrap where the flight attendants can still work in the galley and prepare meals even while the secondary barrier is closed.
The Air Line Pilots Association is among the stakeholders that have been pushing for secondary barriers for many years. “So far, airlines have used trolleys and carts to block the aisle but that is not a very professional solution and this offers much more in terms of security,” Nadol said of the SCHROTH IPSB.
SCHROTH’s product has been selected by Airbus for linefit across the entire A320 family, the A330 and A350 so this will be on every large Airbus twinjet being delivered to US scheduled operators from mid-2025. The product will also be offered for retrofit.
AmSafe Bridport, a competitor to SCHROTH, is providing the secondary barriers for the Airbus A220. And while SCHROTH was not successful in winning Boeing’s IPSB tender, Nadol confided to RGN that “there’s some further opportunities with other airframers.”
Meanwhile, lawmakers have strongly urged the FAA to appoint the necessary Committee that will address the aircraft retrofit requirement in the bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 (pdf).
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Featured image credited to istock.com/Rathke
