Patent ID: 7406368

Claim:
A method of limiting access to an aircraft comprising: maintaining a database having identity and associated biometric information relating to crew members; assigning at least one category to a group of crew members, the category based upon the job title of the crew members; designating access to certain areas of the aircraft to only particular categories of crew members only if an emergency situation arises; loading the category information to the database; downloading the category information to the aircraft; downloading the designated access information to the aircraft; downloading a subset of information from the database to the aircraft, the subset consisting essentially of information relating to crew members that are assigned to the aircraft for a particular flight; reading biometric information of an individual requesting access to the aircraft; comparing the biometric information read from the individual requesting access to the information downloaded to the aircraft to determine if there is a match; if a match is determined, determining a category of the individual requesting access to the aircraft, granting the individual access to only the areas of the aircraft to which the category is designated; if no match is determined, denying the individual access to the aircraft, generating a report that includes the individual's biometric information and information relating to the aircraft access attempt and providing the report to at least one of a crew member and ground personnel for immediate investigation of the access violation; preparing a preflight report relating to aircraft access attempts, the preflight report comprising any access violations to one or more areas of the aircraft, and reviewing the preflight report as part of a preflight checklist; and providing the individual's biometric information to security personnel.