"Car Inspections Return to Jacksonville, Fla., International Airport"

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

Car Inspections Return to Jacksonville, Fla., International Airport
The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla.


Jacksonville International Airport is inspecting vehicles for the first time
in nearly a year in response to last week's call by the Bush administration
for heightened security. 

An airport official said the inspections are just one of the measures that
were planned in advance by JIA and the Transportation Security
Administration when federal officials declare a Code Orange level of
security. 

"This was pre-described in an agreement with the TSA," said Chip Snowden,
the Jacksonville Airport Authority's chief operating officer. "This is
probably the most public of all the things we did."

Vehicles entering JIA's upper and lower curbs were searched inside and out
by private security guards beginning Friday afternoon after the Bush
administration changed the nation's security status from an "elevated risk"
to "high risk" based on increased communications by terrorist organizations.


The inspections take place along the airport's inbound roadway, Yankee
Clipper Road, at the point where motorists choose whether to park. Vehicles
entering airport parking areas are unimpeded, but vehicles traveling toward
the terminal are subject to inspection. 

The security guards are looking for "any kind of explosive device,"Snowden
said. 

He declined to say how many vehicles were inspected or how they are
selected. But Snowden did say no confiscations resulted from the weekend
inspections. 

Inspections last three to four minutes and they're expected to continue 24
hours a day until the Code Orange alert is changed, Snowden said. 

In the case of a Code Red, more security measures would be put into place
that would be "quite a bit more elaborate," he said. 

Snowden said the authority is paying for the inspections, but it's too early
to tell what the cost will be. 

National Guard troops and then private security guards inspected vehicles
entering the airport's hourly parking garage after Sept. 11, 2001, until
March 2002. The airport stopped inspecting vehicles entering the garage
after it submitted a blast analysis study to federal officials showing that
an explosion in the garage wouldn't cause major structural damage to the
airport's terminal.

However, the waiver didn't include 150 spaces on the top floor of the
parking garage. The spaces were later reopened but are now closed during the
security alert, Snowden said. 

The vehicle inspections haven't prompted any complaints from airport
visitors, he said. 

"I think the traveling public is taking this with minimal impact, "Snowden
said.

David Stempler, president of the Washington D.C.-based Air Travelers
Association, said vehicle inspections don't bother air travelers as much as
terminal security checks. 

"The big drawing factor is how long it takes them to process through
security," he said. "That whole time period is what people are looking at."


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