"D/FW taking TSA 'deadline' seriously"

Thursday, May 6, 2004

D/FW Airport taking TSA 'deadline' seriously
By Bryon Okada
The Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram


D/FW AIRPORT - Today, the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Board will almost
certainly vote to add temporary explosives-detection stations to the
ticket halls of Terminals B and E by May 31 to electronically screen all
bags.

The airport board has been informed that the situation is urgent and
that the May 31 deadline is backed by a security directive from the
Transportation Security Administration's top brass here and in
Washington, D.C.

But local TSA officials, who on Tuesday had no comment on the directive,
said Wednesday that they know of no such order or deadline beyond
getting the temporary stations set up, manned and operating as quickly
as possible.

"We have 200 new screeners and are hiring 500 total," TSA spokeswoman
Andrea McCauley said Wednesday. "We don't have all the equipment yet.
We've got most of it, but we're trying to get everything together."

Depending on who is talking and when, the May 31 deadline or
non-deadline -- which may or may not have come from conversations
between acting TSA head David Stone and D/FW Federal Security Director
Jimmy Wooten -- is more goal than directive. Or vice versa.

"That's the target date, but it's a moving target," McCauley said.

The TSA's apparent lack of urgency came as a surprise to D/FW
executives.

"We have been operating under specific instructions from headquarters
staff in Washington, D.C., and our FSD" Wooten, D/FW spokesman Ken Capps
said. "We'll recheck it with them, but those specifics were pretty clear
to the executives at D/FW."

D/FW will be making space for the temporary screening stations and
delivering a power supply, said Clay Paslay, D/FW executive vice
president of airport development. Other decisions are the TSA's
business, D/FW officials said.

Meanwhile, TSA officials say the agency and the airport have jointly
planned ways to keep customer disruptions to a minimum. D/FW officials
have already noted customer service problems with temporary stations in
Terminals A and C.

Hassle or no hassle, a phase-out of the temporary systems will begin in
October, quickly making in-lobby screening machines nonessential because
a permanent system will take their place.


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