A Mesa Airlines pilot’s laptop went missing last week at Washington’s Dulles Airport. This wasn’t any old laptop, mind you. It contained top secret security information that, as reported by Washington DC’s ABC 7 News, provide “the pilot, through a keypad, access from the gate to the plane and down to ground level right below the plane.”

Needless to say, this caused major security concerns. 17 airports including Chicago O’Hare and Hartsfield in Atlanta, had to quickly change security codes. While this situation caused general panic and some embarrassment for Mesa Airlines, it also raised serious security questions. Should sensitive codes such as these be stored on a pilot’s laptop? If so, what measures need to be in place to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen on a regular basis?