"DiFava promises a tougher Logan"

Friday, October 5, 2001

DiFava promises a tougher Logan 
By Sean P. Murphy
The Boston (MA) Globe


The new chief of public safety at Logan International Airport yesterday
promised swift consequences for future lapses in security by Massport
officials, State Police, airlines, and the screeners who work at
checkpoints. 

John DiFava, a State Police colonel, said any mistakes will result in
sanctions, fines, and public notoriety for those found to be
responsible. ''There's going to be zero tolerance for that behavior,''
he said at a brief news conference yesterday at Logan. There's no more
room for mistakes, for lapses in security, for unlocked doors. We're
going to fine, shut down, and make public those who violate this.'' 

DiFava, 49, was named Logan's interim security chief by Acting Governor
Jane M. Swift earlier this week. Swift decided to make a change in
security operations at the Massachusetts Port Authority when security
breaches at Logan continued in the weeks after hijackers boarded two
planes there and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New
York. Swift decided to put Massport's security chief, Joseph Lawless, in
charge of just the Port of Boston, and place DiFava, who started his
career patrolling the airport as a young trooper, in command of Logan
security. 

Touring Logan yesterday, DiFava said he intends to push the airlines to
conduct better security checks, and will employ the State Police and
newly-installed National Guard troops to oversee passenger checkpoints.
''Right now I'm directing my efforts at Massport, the State Police, the
checkpoints, and the airlines,'' he said. 

Until the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, security checkpoints were
controlled not by Massport, but by the major airlines that operate out
of Logan. 

Two teams of hijackers wielding box cutters or small knives -
permissible for passengers under Federal Aviation Administration rules
at the time - commandeered two flights out of Logan and flew them to New
York. Although it is clear the 10 hijackers managed to board their
flights without arousing suspicion, it is not certain that any specific
lapse of security occurred, given that the FAA allowed box cutters and
small knives on planes. 

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, security has been tightened
at Logan and other airports around the country, bolstered by federal
agents and local law enforcement officers. Since then, however, Logan
has had an embarrassing series of lapses at checkpoints. 

Virginia Buckingham, Massport's executive director, said her agency
would attempt to raise the $100 ceiling on fines it is now able to levy
on airlines for security breaches. ''We'll do whatever is necessary to
make the airlines and the companies they hire take this seriously,'' she
said.

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