"Gov't Recruiting Passenger Screeners"

Tuesday, April 2, 2002

Gov't Recruiting Passenger Screeners
By JONATHAN D. SALANT
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON -- The government is recruiting passenger screeners for six
airports as the new Transportation Security Administration begins to replace
private employees with federal workers.

The airports are Anchorage, Alaska; Baltimore-Washington; Grand Rapids,
Mich.; Louisville, Ky.; Mobile, Ala.; and Spokane, Wash. These are among the
15 airports where federal officials are studying operations. Security
screeners at other airports will be hired later.

Each candidate must be a U.S. citizen and have either a high school degree
or one year of full-time work in airport screening or other security job,
such as an X-ray technician. They will be paid from $23,600 to $35,400, plus
cost-of-living adjustments according to their locations. Current screeners
can apply for the federal jobs if they meet the requirements.

Transportation officials have said the first federal screeners would be at
their posts this spring. Under the new airline security law, all airport
checkpoints are to be staffed from a team of more than 30,000 federal
workers by Nov. 19.

Once hired, the new screeners will be trained by 1,200 supervisors now being
trained in Oklahoma City.

Also, the new security agency bought an additional 300 explosive detection
machines from InVision Technologies and ordered parts for another 100, the
Newark, Calif., company announced Tuesday. The cost was $148.6 million.
Parts for the 300 new machines were ordered last month.

InVision also has agreed to license its technology to the security agency so
other companies can build the machines, InVision said. Those companies can
only produce the machines for the government, InVision said.

The security agency faces a Dec. 31 deadline for using explosive detection
equipment to inspect checked baggage. Transportation Department officials
said they expect to meet the deadline through a combination of large
machines and handheld equipment to detect traces of explosive material.

Airport officials say they lack enough time to renovate facilities to
accommodate the minivan-sized machines by year's end.

"The deadline is going to need to be met through a combination of
technologies," said Gina Marie Lindsay, managing director of Seattle-Tacoma
International Airport. "That's the only realistic way."

On the Net:

Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.dot.gov

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