"Despite Some Stricter Rules, U.S. Airports Are Vulnerable"

Wednesday, September 3, 2003
 
Despite Some Stricter Rules, U.S. Airports Are Vulnerable
In U.S., Stringent Procedures to Bar Access To Planes Fail to Thwart Some
Trespassers
By STEPHEN POWER 
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


This past spring, a flight attendant inspecting a presumably empty American
Eagle commuter plane at Pittsburgh International Airport made an unsettling
discovery: a man asleep inside the passenger cabin.

The man had slipped past an airline ticket counter during the night, crawled
through a baggage conveyor belt and made his way to an unlocked United
Airlines van, which had the keys in the ashtray. He then drove to the plane,
also unlocked, climbed onto a nearby jet bridge to get aboard and made
himself comfortable.

Nearly two years after Congress approved a massive expansion of the federal
role in airport security, there are still plenty of ways for unauthorized
visitors to gain access to planes. Here's a look at some airport
vulnerabilities and how they are being addressed by airport authorities and
the carriers themselves.

After the May 24 arrest of Louis Esquivel at the Pittsburgh airport , the
Transportation Security Administration instructed airline officials to
restrict access to keys to their vehicles and to ensure that unauthorized
individuals can't get through the baggage-conveyor systems behind the ticket
counters. To comply, the Pittsburgh airport has reinforced the locks on the
doors leading to its baggage-conveyor belts.

American Eagle, an affiliate of AMR Corp., now distances its retractable jet
bridges from planes at the airport by about 15 feet when the aircraft aren't
being used, company spokeswoman Lisa Bailey says. Before Mr. Esquivel's
arrest, the average distance was 3 to 4 feet, which could allow a person to
jump across. The airline is considering similar changes at other airports ,
Ms. Bailey adds.

"The response was swift, and steps were taken to ensure there was not a
repeat performance," a TSA spokesman says. The spokesman adds that it's
"safe to assume" that the agency has communicated the "lessons learned" from
Mr. Esquivel's arrest to federal authorities at other airports.
 
Still, other procedures remain unchanged. A spokesman for UAL Corp.'s United
Airlines says the airline continues to leave the keys to parked airport
vehicles in the ignition or ashtray, so they can be moved quickly in the
event of an emergency and to comply with local fire-code regulations. TSA
officials "assured us our policies conform to their guidelines," says the
spokesman, Jason Schechter.

Mr. Esquivel was found guilty of trespassing and other minor offenses by a
state district court. The court allowed him to be released for time served,
and he was returned to Texas, from which he had been reported missing, to be
placed in the care of his mother and a social worker.

At some airports , the only barrier between the airfield and the outside
world is a chain-link fence. And in other places, there is no barrier at
all. At New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Jamaica Bay,
three fishermen were able to wander the airfield undetected for about an
hour last month after washing ashore near a runway. Police released the men
after determining they hadn't meant any harm. Since then, the airport has
implemented new security measures to protect runways, though a spokesman for
the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages JFK, declined
to describe them, citing security protocols.

Protecting runways has taken on new significance following the Aug. 12
arrest of a British arms dealer who allegedly tried to sell a Russian-made
surface-to-air missile to a U.S. undercover agent posing as an operative for
al Qaeda. As part of the sweeping aviation-security law passed after the
Sept. 11 attacks, Congress directed the TSA to test "new and emerging"
technologies for controlling access to closed or secure areas at no fewer
than 20 airports.

But the measure didn't set a deadline for such tests, and the TSA has yet to
begin them. TSA spokesman Brian Turmail says that airport operators are
responsible for "preventing and detecting unauthorized access" and that the
agency is working with airports to provide "the kind of support and
oversight needed to ensure that this requirement is being met."

Some airports aren't happy about the TSA's form of oversight. In Klamath
Falls, Ore., in March, officials balked at the agency's request for
unrestricted, 24-hour access to taxiways at the airport and other areas
inside the fence line, prompting the TSA to threaten the airport with fines.

"We saw no reason why they needed to be out there snooping around," the
airport's director, Hal Wight, says. He says the airport is already
patrolled by Oregon Air National Guard troops stationed on the premises. The
extra patrols would have compromised safety on the airfield, he says, since
TSA officials at the airport don't have vehicles with flashing lights or
radios to identify themselves.

Other airports are improving perimeter security on their own. At Boston's
Logan International Airport , officials are installing gates with barriers
capable of withstanding a heavy truck traveling at 50 miles per hour. The
airport also is testing infrared cameras that can track vehicles through
smoke, fog or rain. The cameras beam images to a monitor inside the
airport's operations center and to hand-held computers carried by airport
police.

"We're very controlling of our airfield," says Kelly Johnson, director of
the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority in Highfill, Ark., who
testified before Congress in March about conflicts between the TSA and her
airport over perimeter security. "A lot of this [conflict] is just the fact
that this organization was stood up so quickly. It's getting better, but
initially there were bumps in the road, and there will be more."

A good set of eyes is sometimes enough to catch unwanted visitors. Three
days after the incident involving the fishermen at JFK, airport police there
spotted another group of boaters within the airport's restricted zone, which
extends 100 yards from airport property. The boaters turned out to be a
reporter and photographer for the New York Times and a boat operator hired
to give them a tour of the waters near the airport for a follow-up story
about fishermen in Jamaica Bay. The Coast Guard has cited all three for
knowingly violating a security zone, an offense punishable by up to $27,500
in civil penalties, a Coast Guard spokesman says. A Times spokesman says,
"There was no intent on our staff's part to violate any regulations or any
zones"; he adds that the Coast Guard hasn't notified the paper or the two
staffers of any citations.

In addition to screening passengers on their way to departing flights, the
TSA guards the exit lanes at airport terminals, to make sure people don't
try to enter a terminal's exits to circumvent security. But the agency
recently said it could no longer handle this function at every location
because of "the constraints we are under."

The agency says it may need airports to pay for the hours the agency's "exit
watchers" work at night, after the last departing flight has left but before
the last arriving flight has landed. Shifting the cost would save the agency
only about $8 million annually, based on some industry estimates, but
airport officials worry it would also set a precedent for more TSA
cost-cutting moves that would be felt by airports and airlines.

"People are thinking, 'Wow, what does this mean?' " says Carter Morris, vice
president for transportation security policy with the American Association
of Airport Executives. Mr. Morris says the TSA's move has raised concern
"that at some point they'll say exit lanes are the responsibility of
airports at all times."

The TSA's Mr. Turmail declines to say how much money the agency would save
by shifting the cost of monitoring exit lanes after hours to airports. But
he says the agency is working with airports "to identify the best ways to
ensure appropriate measures are in place" to ensure access control for exit
lanes after the TSA's screening operations have ceased for the day.

Security procedures vary at terminals used by corporate and charter
aircraft. Although some have metal detectors to screen passengers and their
belongings for weapons, many do not.

The TSA has jurisdiction over these facilities but relies to a large extent
on the industry to come up with security protocols specific to each airport.
For their part, industry officials say it doesn't make sense to impose
uniform procedures on such facilities, since the layout and daily operations
of airports with such terminals vary.

"If the threat level was identical at every airport in America, that would
be one thing, but clearly it is not," says James Coyne, president of the
National Air Transportation Association in Alexandria, Va., which represents
charter operators and other aviation-service providers. He said that at
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport , the terminal used by corporate and
charter aircraft is "on the fringe of the property" and has only four
flights a day or so, while Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia
has "hundreds and hundreds of private planes coming in and out each day."

Since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Signature Flight Support, one of
the industry's largest flight-support operators of hangars for corporate
flight departments and charter aircraft, has issued codes for aircraft at
its facilities. Flight-crew members on the company's premises must recite
the code for their aircraft to a security guard or customer-service agent
before gaining access to the airside ramp.

At a few of its 43 U.S. facilities, the company, a unit of BBA Group PLC,
London, also screens passengers and luggage for weapons, a company spokesman
said.

SLIPPING PAST SECURITY

A sampling of recent airport-security breaches world-wide.

April 13, 2003: A British Airways employee enters a terminal through an exit
lane at the Newark, N.J., airport.
May 24: A flight attendant discovers a man asleep aboard an American Eagle
flight in Pittsburgh. He had breached several layers of security to reach
the plane.
May 29: A man stabs two flight attendants with sharp, wooden instruments
aboard a Quantas flight shortly after it departs Melbourne, Australia.
Several passengers overpower him.
June 11: A man brings a 4-inch knife aboard a United Airlines flight.
June 12: Police at Ancona Falconara airport in Italy find a seven-ounce
package of explosives aboard an Alitalia flight.
Aug. 2: A woman brushes past security at Chicago's Midway Airport. Thousands
of passengers have to be re-screened.

Source: Airport Security Report


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