"Logan: A model of post-9/11 security"

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

A model of post-9/11 security
The Boston (MA) Globe


Passengers will remember the new restaurants and shops at Logan
International Airport's Terminal A, but they probably won't notice its most
cutting-edge feature: security.

That's because most of the improvements are happening behind the scenes. The
terminal is one of a handful of airport facilities to open since the 2001
terrorist attacks, when two of four hijacked planes left Logan. Since then,
every airport in the country has been retrofitted with expensive new
security equipment, but the new Terminal A provided one of the first
opportunities for federal, airline, and airport officials to design and
build a facility that incorporated beefed-up security measures.

"This is a great opportunity in that we could design all the new things
directly into the building from scratch," said George Naccara, the
Transportation Security Administration's federal security director at Logan.
"We'll be emulated around the country or around the world."

Most of what's in the new terminal is designed to solve the TSA's biggest
dilemma: how to maximize security while keeping passengers and bags flowing
through the airport. There are some innovative technologies, such as an
access-control system for airport employees, that should bolster Logan's
recent reputation as a testing lab for airport security.

"It's been our philosophy since the days immediately after 9/11 to be the
measuring stick" for airport security, said Tom Kinton aviation director for
the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates Logan.

Lessons the TSA has learned since implementing new airport security rules
nearly four years ago were applied to creating the new terminal's security
features.

Instead of having several corridors, each with a separate security lane,
Terminal A has a central checkpoint with eight lanes in the lobby. Under
Delta's old setup in Terminal C, a passenger walked through an expansive
lobby to find the corridor and security lane for his departure gate.

Building one large checkpoint shortens the walk for passengers and ensures
they will all be screened in the same place, no matter which gate the flight
leaves from. Dividing the checkpoint into eight lanes should help keep
security lines moving quickly, Naccara said.

To protect passengers' privacy and property, the TSA built two private
screening rooms at the checkpoint and installed 46 video cameras. The rooms
are enclosed in frosted glass to allow passengers selected for so-called
special screenings to have them done in private, if requested. The cameras
are used to watch both travelers and screeners at the checkpoints, Naccara
said.

"A lot of the time, we're defending ourselves against charges of theft," he
said. "Now, we'll have all that on tape."

Actually, they'll have the screenings on a server, where video from all the
cameras will be stored for 30 days.

Cameras will also be watching TSA's luggage screeners, who will be working
in an elaborate new screening room. Bags checked at the ticket counters will
be placed on conveyor belts that wind behind the counters and into the
screening room, which sits one level below.

In other Logan terminals, the steep drop from the ticket counters to the
baggage machines a floor below has damaged some bags, or jammed
bomb-detection machines, Naccara said. To prevent that, the new terminal's
seven luggage-screening machines, which weigh 14,000 pounds and cost about
$1 million each, are sitting on specially built steel platforms about 12
feet above the screening room floor. That decreases the angle of the slope
on which the bags will drop to reach the machines.

In an adjacent room, TSA staffers will monitor nine computer stations linked
to the bomb-detection machines. If something in a suitcase sets off an
alarm, the screeners can look inside the bag from their station without
having to open it. If the alarm still can't be resolved, the bag will be
brought into the smaller room for further tests.

Terminal A workers will also be subject to tougher security.

The airport is installing a $25 million fingerprint access system. Workers
will swipe an ID card, punch in a code, and place an index finger on a touch
pad to access secure areas. The system, part of a broader $150 million
security initiative, will be expanded to other parts of the airport by next
year.

Kinton, Massport's aviation director, said that all of Terminal A's security
features will eventually be duplicated elsewhere at the airport, as Massport
tries to stay ahead of federal mandates that increasingly require airports
to ratchet up their security procedures.

"We know it's coming," he said. "Why not take the lead and do it right the
first time?"


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