South Florida Airports Step Up Security Over EgyptAir Mystery

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The mystery about what happened to EgyptAir flight 804 has South Florida airports stepping up security to keep passengers safe.

On a crowded, busy Miami International Airport concourse Friday, Ares the bomb-sniffing dog was busy. He was hard at work, doing what bomb sniffing dogs do.

In the air, awareness of the crash of EgyptAir flight 804.  But security at MIA and all airports soared two months ago when terrorists wreaked murder and mayhem at the airport in the capitol of Belgium.

"Since the Brussels attack, we've been on a heightened state of alert.  We've had increased police presence throughout the airport, more police officers with assault rifles – just to have a presence inside the airport and around the perimeter," said MIA spokesperson Greg Chin.

The TSA declined to comment on the EgyptAir crash or its methods beyond a statement saying "we are always in a heightened state of alert and remain attentive to every aspect of aviation security."

Some travelers, like businessman Kevin Smith, refuse to be cowed..

"I wouldn't let it control my life or dominate my thoughts, it's, its... I'm not gonna let it get to me," he said.

But others, in the face of an increasingly dangerous world, travel uneasy.

"If you're in the states or international, it's always at the back of your mind, sometimes the forefront.  Recently, more forefront," said Penny Finney, who is flying to Indiana. "We are traveling with an infant today and that's even more scary – my grandbaby."

Life, precious – and life very much changed by a terrible thing called terror.