"Pressure Builds for Aviation Security Action"

Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Pressure Builds for Aviation Security Action


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pressure grew on Tuesday for government action to
boost aviation security as the leading pilots union said its members
should be armed and lawmakers deepened their talks on legislation to
tighten operations at airports and on airplanes. 

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta met with President Bush late in
the day to review options, which officials and lawmakers said included
an expanded air marshals program, more secure cockpit doors, and a
greater federal role in screening people and baggage at airports. 

A senior Federal Aviation Administration official told a Senate hearing
that Mineta might unveil some of his recommendations before an aviation
task force, that he appointed, makes its formal recommendations on Oct.
1. 

House Minority leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri said an aviation
security measure might pass that chamber next week. Senate aides also
expected action next week. 

``We're going to agree to make the (cockpit) doors more secure, we're
going to agree to sky marshals, we're going to agree to an increased
security presence in the airports,'' said Senate Majority leader Tom
Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat. 


NEW THREAT 

Saying air crews faced a new kind of hijacking threat after the attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon two weeks ago, the president
of the largest U.S. airline pilots union proposed to Congress that
commercial pilots carry guns while in the cockpit. 

``The cockpit must be defended,'' Duane Woerth, chief of the Air Line
Pilots Association, told a House of Representatives hearing on security
options. 

A Boeing 747-series captain for Northwest Airlines, Woerth proposed that
specially screened, trained pilots be the only ones allowed to carry
weapons and that the program be tightly overseen by a federal law
enforcement. 

He also said the union plan included the placement of two ''stun guns''
as standard equipment on the aircraft. Stun guns are designed to
temporarily disable an attacker. 

Woerth said after the hearing that many members of the pilots union had
reservations, but he said the decision to have them armed on a
particular plane was up to the captain of the flight. 

The airline industry refused to support the plan, saying more study was
needed. 

One of the two major flight attendants unions, the Association of Flight
Attendants, agreed that air crews should have the means to defend
themselves and said it would not fight the proposal. 


SECURITY TALKS ACCELERATE 

Talks on the scope and cost of an aviation security bill in the House
and Senate intensified with lawmakers moving forward with separate
plans. 

A range of security proposals were under consideration for a final
package, including a bill proposed by Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois
Democrat. 

That plan would require the federal government to operate passenger and
baggage security checkpoints and screening operations. 

The screening would be done by federal employees and would prohibit
sub-contracting, which is how the airlines handle those functions now. 

There are roughly 18,000 baggage screeners employed by the airlines.
Mineta has said a total federal takeover of screening operations could
cost up to $1.8 billion. 

Durbin's bill also requires armed, uniformed law enforcement personnel
at each airport checkpoint. 

Costs could be covered out of existing aviation funds or through a $1
ticket charge. 

The plan was similar to one proposed by a bi-partisan group from the
Senate Commerce Committee, which also called for strengthening cockpit
doors. 

At least one co-sponsor of that legislation said a ticket surcharge of
up to $4 should be considered to pay for federalizing screening
functions and expanding the air marshals service. 

Air marshals are armed, plainclothes federal agents who ride on domestic
flights. 

A national telephone survey found that 73 percent of respondents favored
training and arming all pilots on U.S. flights. The same poll of 800
adults by Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates found that 79 percent of
respondents favored air marshals on all domestic flights paid for by a
ticket tax. 

The House Transportation Committee led efforts to craft security
legislation in the House of Representatives. 

Some congressional aides said it appeared the Republican-led House would
not support the level of federalization for baggage screeners that has
been proposed in the two Senate bills. 

However, an industry source said it was possible Congress would approve
some kind of ticket charge for security, compromise on federalization to
give some flexibility in hiring, and add a compensation package for
furloughed airline workers.

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