"Minnesota airports and airlines allow 1,064 security lapses over decade"

Tuesday, September 25, 2001 

Minnesota airports and airlines allow 1,064 security lapses over decade


ST. PAUL (AP) -- In Minnesota, FAA records showed 1, 064 security lapses
by airports and airlines over the past decade, almost all of them at
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. 

Among the lapses were failing to detect weapons being brought through by
government inspectors as a test. 

The breaches led the FAA to propose 388 enforcement actions against
airports and airlines, including fewer than 100 fines. Other enforcement
actions included warnings or letters that a problem had been corrected. 

The fines totaled about $500, 000, though they were negotiable and the
actual amount paid likely was much lower. That information was not
immediately available; the FAA did not respond to questions from The
Associated Press about the data. 

The federal government proposed the highest total fines, $290, 075, for
Northwest Airlines -- not unusual for an airport' s dominant carrier.
Northwest also declined to discuss the data. 

Airlines typically hire private companies to provide security at
airports. Officials at Globe Aviation Services Corp., which handles
security at the main Lindbergh Terminal, and International Total
Services Inc., which staffs the Hubert H. Humphrey Terminal, did not
return phone calls about the data. 

Fines for other airlines that operate in Minnesota and allowed security
breaches from 1990 to 2000 ranged from a total of $500 to $40, 000 from
1990 through 2000. 

Several Minnesota airports and airlines outside the Twin Cities also
were the subject of enforcement action. The FAA proposed $15, 200 in
fines at the Duluth International Airport. Nine enforcement actions were
proposed for incidents at Rochester International Airport, but none were
fines. The Winona Municipal Airport-Max Conrad Field and Crystal Airport
each were hit with one enforcement action, but a fine wasn' t suggested
by the FAA in either case.

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