"Security fears at Newark Airport"

Sunday, May 9, 2004

Security fears at Newark Airport 
Screeners say too many bags elude adequate scrutiny on route to planes 
BY RON MARSICO 
The Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger


Two and a half years after 9/11, thousands of checked bags are loaded
onto planes at Newark Liberty International Airport each day without
being scanned for explosives, and security checkpoints remain seriously
understaffed, according to current and former screeners as well as
internal e-mail. 

The concerns come from six current U.S. Transportation Security
Administration employees at the airport and eight former employees. Five
former screeners spoke on the record, while the others -- including
supervisory level personnel -- requested anonymity. The e-mail messages
obtained by The Star-Ledger, discussing security problems, were sent by
the airport's ranking TSA officials to supervisors and other agency
employees. 

The interviews and the e-mail portray an airport security system in
which short staffing and the pressure to keep lines moving result in
corners being cut as screeners handle up to 40,000 checked bags and at
least 40,000 carry-on bags each day. 

"It's all smoke and mirrors," said Dan Sabella, 40, a screener at
Terminal C until he quit in February. "I didn't sleep very well when I
had that job. It became so routine to just have that uneasy feeling. ...
Stuff was getting through every day." 

Top-level TSA officials sharply disagree with screeners' assertions that
security is being compromised at Newark Airport, one of the three
airports used by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. They do concede, however,
that the airport is understaffed. They say they are in the process of
hiring hundreds of new workers. 

"We've gone through our growing pains, and we have what I consider a
stable work force and a growing one," said Marcus Arroyo, the TSA's
federal security director at Newark Airport. 

"We all take this job seriously. We're not going to sleep at night if
there's a problem," said Arroyo. "I'll come back if there's a problem.
So will any member of my staff. So yes, I do feel Newark is safe." 

MISSED DEADLINES 

The TSA was created two months after the hijacking of four planes,
including a United Airlines flight out of Newark that crashed in a
Pennsylvania field after the passengers resisted. 

The agency was given a daunting mission: Replace poorly trained,
ineffective screeners who worked for private security firms with
full-time, well-trained employees who worked for the federal government.


Some airports have made the transition faster than others. Newark
Airport has not been one of the success stories. 

Of the nation's 429 commercial airports, only five missed the extended
congressional deadline for having all checked bags either pass through
bomb-detection machines or be manually testing for explosive residue.
Newark was one. 

Newark missed the original deadline, at the end of 2002, while it was
installing about 50 of the SUV-size machines required to the scan
checked bags. A one-year extension of deadline expired this past Dec. 31
with the machines in place but not all checked luggage going through
them. Arroyo says manpower shortages were a factor. To this day, the
airport does not have the staff it needs to fully operate all of the
bomb detection machines during peak hours. 

Before the deadlines expired, Congress allowed airports to meet security
requirements by alternate means: by having specially trained dogs sniff
bags for explosives, by hand-searching luggage or, as a last resort, by
using a system called Positive Passenger Bag Match. 

Under the bag match option, airlines use computer records to ensure no
checked bag remains on an about-to-depart plane if its owner has not
boarded. This measure has been widely criticized because it would not
deter a suicide bomber whose bag was in the luggage hold below him, set
on a timer to explode. 

Current and former TSA screeners and supervisors say that, while there
is not enough staff to electronically scan every bag for explosives,
they do not often see manual searches or dogs used as an alternative.
They could not say whether the airlines are using the bag match
technique. 

John Brennan, 33, of Piermont, N.Y., who spent nearly a year as a
screener of checked baggage in Terminal A before he resigned in October,
says continuing staffing shortages make it impossible to scan every bag
for explosives. 

"If we physically did every bag, a lot of those planes would be
delayed," said Brennan. "We didn't do every single bag. We did a
percentage." He said he had no idea what that percentage was, but "it
was ridiculous. Just too few bags were being done, in my opinion." 

Since Brennan's departure, Terminal A has met the mandate, with all bags
there either going through the bomb-detection machines or being swiped
with a sterile cloth for signs of explosive residue, according to senior
TSA officials. 

For example, on Nov. 26, the hectic travel day before Thanksgiving, TSA
records show Terminal A handled 9,897 checked bags and all were
electronically scanned for explosives. 

But Terminal B and Terminal C are still unable to electronically screen
or swipe 100 percent of checked bags. Terminal C is the airport's
busiest; Continental Airlines, which uses Newark as a hub, operates most
of its flights there from that terminal. 

Arroyo disputed the screeners' assertion that the lapses involve
thousands of bags daily. He said alternate means of review, including
the bag match technique, continue to be used for some bags. 

"It's not by anybody's choice that we didn't get there on Dec. 31,"
Arroyo said, referring to the extended deadline. "I'm able to assure
that every bag that gets on an airplane has been under some level of
scrutiny." 

He said all checked bags would be scanned for explosives in "the very
foreseeable future." 

A TSA spokesman said he believes Newark Airport will meet the
requirement when the new employees are hired within a few months. 

'MITIGATING' LUGGAGE 

An internal e-mail message indicates that as recently as Jan. 22, one
ranking airport official worried about the number of bags not being
scanned. 

On that day, three weeks after the airport missed the extended deadline,
Lou Illiano, at the time Terminal C's screening manager, sent an e-mail
to several other high-ranking TSA officials at the airport, warning that
far too many bags were going onto planes unscanned. 

Illiano wrote: "I have begun to analyze the bag data. So far I've only
look (sic) at one day, Jan. 19. It looks like we did about 67 percent of
domestic bags." 

Given that some 18,000 or more bags are checked onto domestic
Continental Airlines planes at Terminal C most days, some 6,000 bags
would not have been screened as required. 

Asked whether only two-thirds of Terminal C's domestic bags were being
properly scanned for explosives, Arroyo said, "I'm not going to respond
to that." 

Illiano wrote that the goal of screening 100 percent of bags was
hampered by "insufficient EWR screeners" and difficulty in keeping "a
consistent watch on this operation." (EWR are Newark's international
air-transportation code letters.) 

Illiano added he was "not sure all the duty managers have grasped the
importance of this operation." 

Continental Airlines employees also bore blame, he said, because they
would send bags directly onto the planes if they determined the TSA
could not screen every bag for explosives without causing delays. In
airport parlance, the practice is called "mitigating" luggage. 

"I also think Continental is too quick to decide that we can't handle
100 percent, and begin mitigating. As it stands, we cannot keep track of
the bags they are mitigating," Illiano wrote. 

Illiano declined a request from comment. 

Airline officials said in a statement: "Continental's highest priority
is the safety and the security of our customers and employees, and the
assertion that Continental is interested in anything else is baseless,
ridiculous and without merit." 

"The airline fully supports the TSA's multiple efforts, many of which
are not visible to the traveler, to comply with all federal security
standards while offering customer-friendly service," the statement
concluded. 

Arroyo denied that TSA loses track of any checked bags. He said the
agency works in concert with the airlines. 

"We know what we're doing in terms of bag match, in terms of processing,
in terms of alternative measures," said Arroyo. "They don't call the
shots. We call the shots." 

Mark Hatfield, a TSA spokesman in Washington, D.C., stressed that even
if other luggage is subjected to Positive Passenger Bag Match, the bags
of anyone deemed a potential security threat are scanned for explosives.


"We have several alternative screening measures available that allow us
to meet the 100 percent checked bag screening requirement. We utilize
them in random fashion and always ensure that risk-associated bags are
electronically cleared," Hatfield said late last week. 

UNHAPPY CONGRESSMAN 

Rep. Robert Menendez (D-13th Dist.), a member of the House aviation
subcommittee that monitors TSA effectiveness, said relying on Positive
Passenger Bag Match at this late date does not meet "the spirit or
intent" of the congressional mandate that 100 percent of checked bags be
screened for explosives. 

Referring to the missed deadline, Menendez said: "It's just
unacceptable, especially when one of the flights of Sept. 11 came out of
here. Technically, I would say they are in violation of the law." 

Last May, Menendez sent a letter to TSA seeking answers about various
problems at Newark Airport. 

"Almost a year later, little has been done to address those concerns
that I outlined in the letter," said Menendez. "Clearly, they have not
been responsive, and we're looking for a variety of ways to (get them
to) be responsive." 

U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) also has asked questions about airport
security. 

On Feb. 25, following a budget hearing with Department of Homeland
Security Secretary Tom Ridge, Corzine submitted a written question to
Ridge asking what Homeland Security -- which oversees TSA -- was "doing
to expedite the 100 percent electronic screening of checked baggage" at
Newark. More than two months later, Corzine said, he has yet to hear
back from Ridge or his staff. 

"I think it's outrageous, and the fact that Secretary Ridge is just
ignoring a request is just wrong," said Corzine. "It (the airport) is
vulnerable until we at least deal with the issue of screening luggage
that goes onto airplanes." 

But careful checking of baggage comes at a price for which the public
has limited tolerance -- delays. 

One TSA supervisor cited the case last year of a threat directed toward
an Air India 747, carrying 400 people, before departure. Officials
responded by using the most stringent inspection procedures, and the
flight was delayed four hours. 

Similarly, threats made over the holidays to some Air France and Virgin
Atlantic flights led to hours worth of delays, said the supervisor. 

CHECKPOINT WOES 

Newark Airport is one of the nation's busiest airports, handling 29.4
million arriving and departing passengers in 2003. 

Some 20,000 fliers depart on average each day through Terminal C.
Terminal A or B each has about 10,000 passengers departing on average
daily. 

Checkpoint lanes -- where passengers walk through metal detectors, take
off their shoes and put carry-on bags and personal items on belts that
carry them through X-ray machines -- are the places most passengers
encounter TSA screeners. The TSA's goal is to keep waits to 10 minutes
or less and to treat fliers in a professional, courteous manner while
not compromising security. 

But that mission is an elusive one at Newark Airport's checkpoints, say
TSA screeners and supervisors. 

Screeners operating X-ray machines are faced with a dilemma: If they
follow the TSA's standard operating procedure and stop the X-ray belt
for every carry-on bag to better examine the contents over the machine's
computer monitor, the line of waiting passengers quickly backs up
dramatically. 

Supervisors sometimes remind them of the requirement but too often
demand they work quickly to keep the lines short, screeners say. 

"The onus was put on us to increase the speed we were screening these
people," said Mick O'Donnell, 36, who worked as a Terminal A checkpoint
screener from August 2002 until October 2003. "And I'll tell you, it was
a little too quick." 

O'Donnell, who is now an airline mechanic supervisor in Georgia, said
screeners often had no choice but to violate standard operating
procedure. The X-ray operator would give cursory looks at each bag's
contents on the monitor as the parade of luggage streamed through the
machine. 

"We wouldn't stop every bag. We would just let them go through -- boom,
boom, boom," said O'Donnell. "There just wasn't time to do that. .. You
would get spoken to if you were running slow." 

Several current TSA employees in supervisory positions also said X-ray
operators still routinely flout the requirement because of pressure from
top officials to move passengers quickly. 

Arroyo said the problem of screeners not stopping carry-on bags on X-ray
machines had not been brought to his attention. 

"They're not supposed to do that," said Arroyo. "If that's somebody's
edict, it's not coming from me. If we find out about it, we put a stop
to it. But I've not had that reported to me." 

But in an e-mail on Feb. 26, a copy of which was sent to Arroyo, a top
TSA official called the speedy movement of carry-on bags on X-ray
machines at Newark Airport a "serious matter" that must be "quickly"
corrected. 

"Apparently, it has become common practice for our X-ray operators to
allow the belts to run continuously and not stop the belt on each
image," Jeffrey Candino, the airport's deputy assistant federal security
director, wrote to supervisors. "Anyone who is not doing that is in
direct violation of the SCP SOP" -- screening checkpoint standard
operating procedure -- "and can be disciplined." 

TSA officials said Candino would not comment on his e-mail message. 

"Our people can't talk about any screening standard operating procedures
due to the sensitivity of the material," said Ann Davis, a TSA
spokeswoman. 

UNGLAMOROUS WORK 

Ultimately, many of Newark Airport's security woes stem from the severe
staffing shortages, say screeners and TSA managers. 

Screeners say there is a constant scramble to man checkpoint lanes and
bomb-detection machines. At times the airport will use only three
screeners on a checkpoint lane and two on a bomb-detection machine, the
screeners say. 

Originally, the TSA wanted seven screeners on each checkpoint lane and
five screeners manning the bomb-detection machines. It lowered the
recommended minimums to four on checkpoint lanes and three on
bomb-detection machines. 

Screeners at Newark Airport generally earn slightly more than $30,000 a
year. 

"It's a brutal job, screening. It's deadly boring and it's deadly
serious," said Robert Monetti, president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103
Inc., who lost his son in the 1988 terrorist bombing over Scotland and
has lobbied since for improved aviation security. "And that's a deadly
combination." 

Deliberate interruptions in routine, such as switching jobs on the
checkpoint lane, are intended to keep screeners sharp-minded. But
Sabella, the former screener who spent 1 1/2 years with the TSA, said
shorthanded lanes can leave screeners unable to properly break the
monotony of the assignments -- such as staring at X-ray machine monitors
to find contraband -- during eight-hour shifts. 

"You can't take a break. You can't be efficient," said Sabella. "You
can't rotate every 30 minutes and be refreshed." 

TSA officials say they are working hard to hire more screeners at Newark
after an unsuccessful effort to attract enough part-time employees. The
agency plans to hire as many as 400 more full-time screeners in the next
two or three months, bringing the total security force to about 1,600.
That number should be sufficient to meet the congressional requirement
for electronic screening, Arroyo said. 

Werner Ledwon of Staten Island, who works as a screener at a Terminal A
checkpoint, said the TSA is trying hard to achieve its mission and
grapple with the staffing shortages. 

"Like any new company, you're going to have some rocky roads. ... I
think we're doing everything we can possibly do," said Ledwon, 55, an
Air Force veteran. "I'm from the old school. You make it work, even if
you were down to one guy. ... I'm proud of what I'm doing." 

Most of those interviewed, however, contend the problems are too severe
to overcome without increased manpower. 

Menendez called for the TSA to find ways to increase staffing during
peak travel periods. "The bottom line is there's a very significant
employee pool that is available in this area," said Menendez, whose
congressional district skirts the airport. "They simply say they cannot
find people -- which is unacceptable." 

Hatfield, the TSA spokesman, said the attrition rate at Newark Airport
was 16 percent over the past year. Current and former TSA personnel
counter that figure seems low. 

THE TESTS 

TSA officials acknowledged that security at the checkpoints is not
foolproof, but they said that is why layered levels of security have
been incorporated into the system. Examples of the extra safeguards are
reinforced cockpit doors in the aircraft and air marshals aboard many
flights, they said. 

The agency's leadership maintains that security at the nation's airports
is significantly better than it was on 9/11 and continues to improve.
The TSA stopped 576,925 prohibited items at the nation's airports in
March alone, according to Hatfield. 

But screeners' concerns about the chance for a weapon to bypass security
echo a recent U.S. General Accounting Office report, which revealed that
federal investigators conducted covert tests and identified weaknesses
at more than 100 airports in the screeners' ability to detect dangerous
objects. While the GAO declined to make the details public, those who
saw them were troubled. 

During a House aviation subcommittee hearing in Washington April 22,
Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin said the nation's aviation security
screeners -- both the federal employees and a handful of private
contractors -- "performed about the same, which is to say, equally
poorly," according to an Associated Press report. 

At Newark Airport, various tests of screeners' ability to detect
dangerous objects have been conducted since last fall. 

In October, Lockheed Martin tested screeners on such skills as how they
hand-wand the passengers who set off the walk-through metal detectors.
In November, TSA agents covertly conducted tests for the GAO, returning
for another round of undercover drills in March. 

Screeners and supervisors say Newark screeners did not fare well. 

Arroyo confirmed that some 80 percent of the screeners in half of one
terminal failed Lockheed Martin's first tests. But he said there were
initial problems with the testing procedures. Within two weeks, he said,
some 90 percent of screeners were passing. 

Screeners and their supervisors say a different battery of tests was
conducted covertly by TSA investigators last November and more than half
of those who were tested failed. 

While Arroyo would not provide specifics, he acknowledged that the
November TSA test marks were poor, but he said the March drills produced
"significantly better" results. 

"Knowing how difficult the tests are, I was very pleased with our
results," said Arroyo. "Had we gotten the results that we had gotten
back in November, I would have been very upset." 

Arroyo added that test results can be misleading. The tests are supposed
to be difficult to pass, he said, because they are seen by the TSA as
teaching tool. 

"So the testing is, I hate to say it, designed to create failure," said
Arroyo. 

Screeners and supervisors, however, also point to specific examples of
repeated checkpoint failures and worry about what else they might be
missing. 

In October, several walk-through metal detectors missed a steak knife
nearly 8 inches long, according to a screening manager's e-mail. 

Following months of complaints by screeners about a blurry X-ray monitor
at a Terminal A checkpoint, the unit was finally replaced in January,
after a United Airlines passenger discovered he had inadvertently passed
through security with a box-cutter. 

In February, 78 passengers aboard a Continental flight had to be
rescreened, and part of Terminal A closed, when a passenger slipped past
security with a carry-on bag containing an object that resembled a gun. 

After investigating that incident, Arroyo said, he concluded the
screener who said he saw a possible gun was mistaken. 

In the case of the blurry monitor, Arroyo conceded there was a problem
with the monitor in January, though he said it had passed calibration
tests. 

"It wasn't a defective machine," said Arroyo. "Was it as good as other
machines? Probably not." 

Arroyo said he did not recall the incident of the steak knife. 

The security director said he is always aware of Newark Airport's 9/11
legacy and is committed to continued security improvements. 

"We know that UAL 93 left from this airport and it perished in
Pennsylvania," said Arroyo. "If any of us could do more than what we're
doing, we would do it."


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