THE world has changed dramatically since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States and in so many areas of life it simply cannot be business as usual.

The hijacking of the four commercial passenger aircraft and the terrible human tragedy that unfolded in the U.S. just more than two months ago numbed the world which is still trying to come to grips with the agonising reality of it all.

As a result of the hijackings, security has been beefed up on airlines and at airports around the world and things that were once taken for granted can no longer be viewed in the same light.

That's the sad but harsh reality.

Guyana felt the impact of the September 11 attacks close to home with almost 30 Guyanese perishing in the explosions at the World Trade Center in New York and at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

And news of the Monday crash of the American Airlines aircraft in Queens, New York, sent fresh fears of further casualties among Guyanese here and in the U.S. since Queens is also the heart of the Guyanese immigrant community in America.

Checks were under way up to yesterday but there was no word that Guyanese were among the dead or injured.

Guyana also yesterday again painfully learned that it cannot take anything for granted and that it is not isolated from threats to safety on commercial aircraft.

It is clear that there has to be an urgent revamping of security measures and checks of all aircraft operations here.

A Roraima Airways Limited Islander was in 1996 hijacked in the northwest at gunpoint by four men.

The pilot and co-pilot were dumped and the hijackers flew off with the aircraft which was later recovered and flown back here.

There was also a serious incident on a small commercial aircraft early this year that should have led to stepped-up security by those in the industry.

From all appearances, that did not happen.

And yesterday, passengers on board a Trans Guyana Airways Limited Cessna Caravan had to undergo the trauma of a mid-air hijacking in south Guyana.

Thankfully, no one was reported injured in the hijacking but it would have been terror-filled for those who had to endure the ordeal and only they would know the real psychological and other impact of the horror of the hours when their world was turned upside down.

Security checks on passengers on interior flights here have clearly not been institutionalised in spite of the two serious incidents we have referred to and despite the drastic changes that have swept through the airline industry around the world in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the U.S.

Nothing can be taken for granted and nothing can anymore be left to chance.

September 11, 2001 taught the world that in ways that could not have been imagined before.

Yesterday's hijacking of a passenger aircraft over the sweeping savannahs in the Rupununi and in the border region with Brazil is a lesson that has to be heeded.

The Government has to urgently convene a meeting of law enforcement agencies, the Guyana Defence Force, operators in the domestic airline industry and related bodies to review the situation and implement measures to cope with the sad but harsh realities