Maintain an airport contingency plan for security conditions and disruptions

Frame this document as a source-led configuration and assurance check: Maintain an airport contingency plan for security conditions and disruptions. Only the official source and traced locations below supply facts. Confirm applicability before acting.

Source fact:

The official 49 CFR 1542.301 — Airport Security from Transportation Security Administration via eCFR supports the following bounded statements:

• Under 49 CFR 1542, each airport operator required to have a security program under section 1542.103(a) and (b) must adopt a contingency plan and must implement its contingency plan when directed by TSA. The research record locates this support at 49 CFR 1542.301(a)(1), read with 49 CFR 1542.301(a) (eCFR anchor p-1542.301(a)(1)).
• Under 49 CFR 1542, each airport operator required to have a security program under section 1542.103(a) and (b) must adopt a contingency plan and must ensure that all parties involved know their responsibilities and that all information contained in the plan is current. The research record locates this support at 49 CFR 1542.301(a)(3), read with 49 CFR 1542.301(a) (eCFR anchor p-1542.301(a)(3)).

Keep the evidence boundary at these traced claims. They support a review of essential functions, upstream providers, recovery sequences, alternate work paths, and tested recovery objectives; they do not support conclusions outside the source’s stated conditions.

What the source does not establish

Applies only to airport operators, tenants, personnel, and areas covered by 49 CFR part 1542 and the cited section. Confirm the TSA-approved security program and current directives; this is not legal advice or a universal access-control standard. Do not read the source as proof of implementation or permission to change production. Its guidance remains conditional on identity, DNS, communications, facilities, suppliers, and the people authorized to invoke recovery and the environment’s recorded constraints.

Applicability questions

• For source statement 1 at 49 CFR 1542.301(a)(1), read with 49 CFR 1542.301(a) (eCFR anchor p-1542.301(a)(1)), which observable configuration, record, or test can confirm applicability here?
• For source statement 2 at 49 CFR 1542.301(a)(3), read with 49 CFR 1542.301(a) (eCFR anchor p-1542.301(a)(3)), which observable configuration, record, or test can confirm applicability here?
• Which owner can attest to the recorded state of essential functions, upstream providers, recovery sequences, alternate work paths, and tested recovery objectives, including exceptions?
• What baseline for identity, DNS, communications, facilities, suppliers, and the people authorized to invoke recovery must accompany the source-specific observation?
• Which success, stop, and escalation criteria are written before testing begins?

DSE recommendation:

DSE recommends using the cited source as the evidence anchor for this decision. Anchor the review in the cited section and keep observation separate from interpretation. Record the source location, examined part of essential functions, upstream providers, recovery sequences, alternate work paths, and tested recovery objectives, observed and expected states, owner, and reason for deviation.

For an approved change, define prerequisites, a limited test path, success and stop conditions, monitoring, and rollback. Check identity, DNS, communications, facilities, suppliers, and the people authorized to invoke recovery in design order. Protect credentials, keys, recovery material, personal data, and sensitive topology in evidence.

Verification and evidence

Evidence should let another reviewer reproduce this decision. Retain observations beside the traced locations 49 CFR 1542.301(a)(1), read with 49 CFR 1542.301(a) (eCFR anchor p-1542.301(a)(1)); 49 CFR 1542.301(a)(3), read with 49 CFR 1542.301(a) (eCFR anchor p-1542.301(a)(3)). Favor business-impact records, dependency maps, exercise results, recovery timings, and open corrective actions, linked to stable identifiers, time, and operator.

Keep before-state evidence, approval, test or change result, exceptions, and after-state evidence together. Use an approved lab, window, or nonproduction path for risky tests. Set a recheck trigger for version, architecture, dependency, vendor, incident, or ownership change. A check proves only what was observed.

Official references

• 49 CFR 1542.301 — Airport Security — Transportation Security Administration via eCFR