"Bay area airports assess threat of shoulder-fired missiles"

Monday, March 31, 2003

Local airports assess threat of shoulder-fired missiles
S.J., S.F. OFFICIALS WORKING WITH U.S. TO FORESTALL ATTACK
By Yomi S. Wronge
The San Jose (CA) Mercury News


Bay Area airports are among dozens in the nation being assessed for
vulnerability to attack by terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles, airport
and homeland security officials said Sunday.

The inspections, which began months ago at major airports across the United
States, are in response to a terrorist-linked attempt to shoot down an
Israeli passenger plane on takeoff from an airport in Kenya in November. The
two small, shoulder-fired missiles barely missed the plane.

At least two Bay Area airports -- San Jose and San Francisco -- are working
with federal agencies on ways to counter the threat. Airport and government
officials are being tight-lipped about the inspections, citing security
reasons, and would say only that they are taking place.

Inspectors from the Transportation Security Administration recently
completed an assessment of San Francisco International Airport's
anti-missile defense, said chief airport spokesman Mike McCarron. He
declined to discuss the findings or what, if any, additional security
measures the airport might take as a result.

However, McCarron said airport officials believed San Francisco
International was better protected than others because it is surrounded by
water, allowing the Coast Guard to keep a close eye on the perimeter of the
airport. He said the airport had also stepped up its road patrols.

Mineta San Jose International Airport spokeswoman Cathy Gaskell said
officials were working closely with federal agencies to secure the area
around the airport.

``I know there are lots of different contingency plans that we are looking
at, but nothing specific,'' Gaskell said Sunday.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security would not identify the
airports being inspected, but said the list included several of the nation's
busiest. Recommendations could include posting round-the-clock security
patrols and tightening surveillance of the flight paths used for takeoffs
and landings.

The department's chief spokesman, Brian Roehrkasse, said the department has
not yet ordered any airports to take specific anti-missile security
measures.

Bush administration officials said that nationwide inspections, which have
been carried out at roughly 80 airports, demonstrated that a terrorist with
a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile weighing as little 30 pounds would
find it relatively easy to evade security at many large airports.

American-made Stingers and Soviet-style SA-7s -- heat-seeking rockets that
can hit low-flying aircraft within three miles -- are said to be available
on the worldwide arms market.

Though no specific threats involving the portable missiles have been
identified, there is concern that such weapons could be smuggled into the
United States and used against aircraft.

That concern has prompted some House members to push legislation to pay for
outfitting some planes with technology to thwart a missile attack, an
expensive measure that some security experts say may not be completely
effective.

Some airports, meanwhile, are moving ahead with preventive anti-missile
defense measures.

National Guard troops have already been deployed to patrol perimeter and
road checkpoints at Los Angeles International Airport.

``This is as part of the security enhancement during the heightened threat
period we are in,'' Roehrkasse said.


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