"More security allegations at Colorado Springs Airport"

Thursday, May 20, 2004

More security allegations at Springs airport
Another former employee of the Colorado Springs Airport comes forward with
reports of lax security
By Kat Thornburgh
KRDO-TV Ch 13, Colorado Springs (CO)


On Wednesday we reported that questions remain about TSA bag checks at the
Colorado Springs Airport. 

Former TSA agent Bill Ray insists the agency is lax.

Now, another former airport employee comes forward with similar allegations.

The former skycap, who did not wish to reveal his identity, worked for three
years with TSA agents at the Springs airport. He confirmed what Ray had to
say about security there saying, "There are problems going on in the airport
that people don't know about." 

He describes how his job allowed him to observe TSA agents in action, "As a
skycap I had to, after checking their bags in, I would give my bag to a TSA
agent. They would screen my bag, and I would notice that every now and then,
they wouldn't fully search my bag correctly." 

He claims he saw it every day, "Some screeners would even say, 'yeah, this
is an open search but I'm going to do a closed [search] on it. It's too
big.'" 

Michael Fierberg, a public affairs officer with the TSA, dismisses that
claim as hearsay, saying "the assessment of someone who doesn't work at TSA
and really is not familiar with our policies and procedures has to be a bit
suspect." 

Fierberg says that failure to perform required searches would trigger
serious penalties, explaining "That would be a pretty serious offense in as
much as it would probably involve falsification of the federal documents." 

But the former sky-cap insists it's happening and blames low morale. "People
that weren't moving up and saw that they wouldn't be able to, they wouldn't
take their job seriously. They'd get lazy." 

Fierberg admits maintaining morale is a challenge, "I'm not going to say
that 100% are at 100% morale, but I do say that morale is very much improved
in Colorado Springs over the last year or so, in part because we did change
management at the top." 

And he says passengers shouldn't worry, "it's a safe airport. I have flown
out of there. I'm proud to fly out of there. I'm proud of the people who
work there, I think they do a terrific job."

But the former airport employee says that the whole truth has yet to come to
light, "people should know these problems. People want to fly safely and if
they knew the things that are going on they'd probably think twice. 

The skycap left his job at the airport on his own.


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