"Editorial: A Huge Hole in Airport Security"

Friday, March 16, 2007

Editorial
A Huge Hole in Airport Security 
The New York (NY) Times


While enormous effort is focused on screening airline passengers for
explosives or weapons before they can board a commercial flight, it remains
shockingly easy for airport employees to sneak into secure areas and carry
dangerous materials onto a plane without detection. That frightening truth
was underscored by a flagrant breach of security at the Orlando Airport in
Florida last week that was detected only because of an anonymous tip. 

The breach in this case was a small-bore smuggling operation. A customer
service agent for Comair, a subsidiary of Delta, and another Comair employee
used their work uniforms and identification badges to gain access to
restricted areas, where they stored a duffle bag containing 13 handguns, an
assault rifle and a stash of marijuana near the departure gates. One of the
men later retrieved the bag and took it aboard a Delta flight to Puerto Rico
as carry-on luggage. Based on the tip, authorities pulled one of the men off
the plane before it took off and, disturbingly late, caught the other with
the duffle bag in San Juan. 

It is small comfort that the Transportation Security Administration says
that no passengers were put at risk because at least two federal marshals
were on board. Had the smugglers been terrorists, they could presumably have
fired their guns or brought down the plane with a powerful explosive. 

The vulnerability exposed by this incident is the lack of checkpoint
screening for thousands of workers who have access to secure areas. The
T.S.A. relies instead on background checks at the time of hiring,
supplemented by random screening at many airports. In the wake of this
latest embarrassment, the T.S.A. flooded five airports with a temporary
surge of additional agents, hardly a solution. 

The Orlando airport, long confronted by smuggling, took a more sensible
course by starting to screen all workers before they enter secure areas,
thus joining Miami and Heathrow Airport in London. A sensible bill
introduced by Representative Nita Lowey of New York and co-sponsored by
Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, both Democrats, would create
a pilot program at five airports to screen all workers with access to secure
areas under the standards used for passengers. Airports typically object
that such screening is cumbersome and costly. But it seems foolish to screen
passengers and airline crews vigilantly and then ignore workers who could do
just as much damage.

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