"EDITORIAL/ It's Too Soon to Revise Post-Sept. 11 Rules for Airport Security"

Thursday, May 23, 2002

EDITORIAL/ It's Too Soon to Revise Post-Sept. 11 Rules for Airport
Security
The Dallas (TX) Morning News


Only eight months have passed since the terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon.

It is too soon for airline officials to be talking about major changes
in the airport security measures enacted by the federal government to
thwart hijackings.

American Airlines chairman and chief executive Donald J. Carty drew
strong applause Monday when he told a group of airport executives that
some of the security rules do not make sense.

"I don't think great security comes from strip-searching Aunt Molly in
Iowa," Mr. Carty told the American Association of Airport Executives.

Mr. Carty cited numerous regulations that must seem irritating and
irrational to passengers as well as to the industry. He questioned the
need for a second screening at the gates after passengers already have
been screened at the main security checkpoints. And he criticized a
proposed requirement that all airlines make certain passengers and their
bags are together on the same flights.

In time, some of the security measures may prove unnecessary.

But for now, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and federal
officials should come down on the side of caution.

Most travelers have accepted the added security, and operations in the
airports are going smoothly. The executives who applauded Mr. Carty
probably were looking ahead to Dec. 31, when airports must have
explosive detection systems in place.

Despite the tightening of the rules, airports in the United States still
do not apply the stringent standards found in the Middle East or even in
some European nations. Strong security has been a way of life for many
years on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

With new warnings that another round of terrorist attacks could take
place, airports must join others in closing the doors on those
determined to use death and destruction as a means for delivering their
message.

John Magaw, chief of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration,
should listen to pleas from airport officials that there should be
better communications from his agency.

But this is not the time for wholesale changes in the current security
structure.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID8

*****************************************