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Note: The subsection about the airline bailouts of 2001 has been moved to this page. Security lapses, screener issues and false alarms: Rep. Janice Hahn criticizes TSA after firearm incident at LAX. Rep. Janice Hahn (D-San Pedro) wrote to TSA chief John Pistole following an incident over the weekend in which a loaded, undeclared .38-caliber handgun fell out of a checked bag as it was being put on a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday [10/26/2011] that the TSA does not search for guns in checked luggage. Airports give security badges to just about anyone, even dogs. It doesn't take much to get an airport security badge these days, even if you are a dog. In an examination of a database of more than 1.1 million security badges for roughly 900,000 airport workers at 359 US airports, the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General found omissions or inaccuracies in 96,000 records, such as missing security status, birthdates and birthplaces. In one instance, a security badge was issued to a dog. Airport security breached 25,000 times since 2001. U.S. airports have suffered more than 25,000 security breaches under the watch of the Transportation Security Administration in the past ten years, a House subcommittee on national security reported today [7/13/2011]. At a hearing today of the House subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations, lawmakers reported thousands of breaches and slammed the TSA for what members saw as a litany of security lapses at airports across the country. Nigerian stowaway had at least 10 boarding passes, none in his name, officials say. A Nigerian stowaway who flew from New York to Los Angeles with an expired boarding pass in someone else's name was carrying at least 10 different boarding passes, according to the FBI agent who took him into custody. Not one of the boarding passes was in the name of Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi, who acknowledged sneaking aboard a Virgin America flight on June 23, officials said. The Editor says... I don't get it. Is this another Muslim dry-run to see where the security is weakest, or did this guy have legitimate reasons to fly somewhere but no money for a ticket? As usual, we can't rely on the news media to tell the whole story. TSA Erases Jihadist Graffiti on Plane. You have to ask yourself if the TSA did this on purpose. I think the agency "flubbed" this deliberately. It's standard operating procedure for law enforcement to preserve a potential crime scene like this one, where it looked like it might be hinting at a terrorist attack that could kill plenty of passengers on a plane about to take off. Two House members call for investigation of TSA. Two Republican House members are calling for an investigation of the Transportation Security Administration after serious lapses in security led to the firing of dozens TSA employees at Honolulu International Airport. Chef accidentally sneaks giant knives through TSA security. Paul Kahan, a James Beard Award-winning chef based in Chicago, said he accidentally smuggled four large chef's knives onto a flight out of Chicago O'Hare International Airport in his carry-on bag on Thursday [6/16/2011]. "Flew outa O'Hare today," Kahan wrote on Twitter. "Forgot I had four huge chef's knives in carry-on bag. Got patted down for wallet. Knives went through." Muslim group: two imams pulled from plane bound for North Carolina. An airline is investigating the removal of two imams from a flight headed to North Carolina, ostensibly because passengers felt uncomfortable with their presence of the pair — both clad in Islamic attire. The incident occurred Friday on an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight from Tennessee to North Carolina and it involved Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul were wearing traditional Muslim dress, CNN affiliate WCNC reported. The Editor says... If you don't want to be treated like a potential hijacker, don't dress and act like one. TSA Follies: See SPOT Fail. Air traffic controllers have been catching a lot of grief for sleeping on the job lately. But do you know what Transportation Security Administration officials have been doing — or rather, not doing — lately? A federal watchdog revealed this week that TSA's counterterrorism specialists failed to detect 16 separate jihad operatives who moved through target airports "on at least 23 different occasions." TSA Failed At Least 23 Times to Detect Terror Suspects. Stephen M. Lord, director of homeland security and justice issues at the Government Accountability Office, told the House Science Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight today that the Transportation Security Administration failed on at least 23 occasions to stop subsequent terror suspects who boarded planes at U.S. airports. Man reportedly slips past security, boards flight. The Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday [3/9/2011] it is trying to determine how a man slipped past authorities and boarded a flight with a stolen boarding pass at New York's Kennedy airport. DHS Caught and Released 369 Nigerians in 9 Months; 15 Became Fugitives. Shortly after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, attempted to detonate an underwear bomb aboard Northwest Flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day 2009, the Homeland Security Department's Transportation Security Administration mandated heightened security checks (including full body patdowns) for all nationals of Nigeria and 13 other countries who boarded flights bound for the U.S. Passenger boards plane with three boxcutters. A passenger boarded an international flight from New York with three boxcutters in his hand luggage after TSA workers at JFK airport failed to spot the blades. He walked straight through supposedly ramped-up security with the cutters, which were used as weapons by the 9/11 hijackers. The Editor says... Will the screeners be fired? Not a chance! Boxcutter Blunder. Here's a confidence-builder: All 141 passengers and crew members aboard a JetBlue flight about to depart JFK last weekend had to be evacuated because Transportation Security Administration screeners missed three box-cutters stashed in a passenger's carry-on bag. As The Post's Philip Messing reported, Jersey City factory worker Eusebio Peraltalajara boarded the plane with the razors, which he'd stowed in a carry-on after work and then forgot about. TSA agents never noticed them. No, We're Not Safer Than Before 9/11. Recently a passenger brought box cutters through a passenger screening point and on to an airliner. In response to this, the Transportation Security Administration announced that the screeners responsible would get "remedial training." There's been a lot of coverage of this event, including legitimate outrage that the sloppy TSA employees weren't fired. What most people don't realize is that tolerating failure and outright sloppy work has been a hallmark of U.S. aviation security from the beginning. The truth is nobody has ever been held accountable for aviation security failures — nobody. From top to bottom, the TSA arrogantly claims it does nothing wrong. TSA Failure Rate May Approach 70%. It seems like terrorists don't even need to think of crazy new shoe, underwear, or pancake bombs to get around the TSA, since airport security seems to have forgotten what normal weapons look like. Though they still won't let me bring four ounces of conditioner onto the plane. Heathrow security told to ignore flying 'mules'. Just prior to Christmas, British customs officers were instructed to pay no attention to flying 'mules' passing through Heathrow airport in London. Due to reduced holiday staffing, Britain's busiest airport was wide open to drug smugglers for a three day period. The UK Daily Mail learned that a UK Border Agency official sent a highly controversial email to the staff at Heathrow. Sacramento-area pilot punished for YouTube video. An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security. The 50-year-old pilot, who lives outside Sacramento, asked that neither he nor his airline be identified. He has worked for the airline for more than a decade and was deputized by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit. Exactly the way Russia would handle it... Pilot punished for showing TSA the truth. His original video posted on YouTube was fuzzy and jumpy, which you might expect from a cell phone, but it was enough for TSA to show up at the home of the person capturing those images with four Sky Marshals and two sheriff's deputies, and confiscate the man's handgun which they had issued to him because he was authorized to carry weapons as part of the government's armed pilots program. They also ordered him to remove the video from YouTube. TSA punishes pilot for criticizing its security flaws. Behaving more like a thuggish third world dictatorship than the guardians of a democratic society, TSA agents have swooped down on a pilot who had the temerity to publicly point out flaws in the security system at San Francisco International Airport. Quite clearly, the agency is far more concerned to appear to be doing a good job than in actually carrying out its mission. Whistleblower Pilot Wants to 'Come Out of Shadows'. The airline pilot who spoke out anonymously after he was reprimanded by the TSA for posting videos showing security flaws at a major airport said today he may reveal his identity this week. The 50-year-old California man told ABC affiliate KXTV in Sacramento that he hopes he will be able to "safely come out of the shadows." Congressman to TSA: Stop harassing pilot, fix the problem. A Sacramento-area airline pilot has made national headlines after posting YouTube videos showing security flaws at San Francisco International Airport. The 50-year-old man shared those videos with News10 to highlight what he and his attorney call serious security flaws. The pilot now has his own web site: TSA Whistleblowing Patriot Pilot. The Patriot Pilot is an average man, like many of us, who simply wanted to make sure that the American public was truly safe when flying the 'friendly skies'. Man boards plane at IAH with loaded gun in carry-on. TSA checkpoints at airports are at the front lines of preventing terrorism. When you go through security, you expect to be scanned and searched. And you expect TSA to prevent contraband from getting on planes, but as we've learned, that doesn't always happen. 3 LAX terminals shut down after guard leaves post. Officials say three terminals at the Los Angeles International Airport were briefly shut down after an airport contract worker left an exit from a secure area unattended. Guard who allowed security breach at Newark Airport put on administrative leave. The air-headed guard who allowed a major security breach at Newark Airport on Sunday has been placed on administrative leave and booted from the airport, the Transportation Security Administration announced Wednesday [1/6/2010]. The disciplinary smackdown is the first sign that heads could roll at the TSA as a result of the security lapse, during which an unidentified man walked into a supposedly secure area of Terminal C. Update: No heads will roll. TSA says Newark Airport security guard will be back on the job. The guard who was away from his post at Newark Airport when a graduate student ducked into a secured area was notified today of his discipline, a Transportation Security Administration official said today. The federal agency, which has not named the guard, would not release details of the disciplinary action, saying it is a protected personnel matter, but confirmed the guard will be back on the job. The System? It's You! Janet Napolitano's appearance on CNN this morning [12/27/2009], in which she tried to put a happy face on the fact that a known terrorist sympathizer got onto a flight bound for America and nearly brought it down, has been widely and justly derided. Human IEDs. I think we will see some radical changes from the Obama administration very rapidly. When a Nigerian national, with a history of radical Islamic sympathies, previously reported to U.S. authorities by his father as a threat to America, buys a one-way ticket with cash, has no check-in luggage, previously was denied a British visa, boards a plane easily, and is prevented only by a courageous tourist from murdering over 300 innocents — and when all that is characterized as the system working like "clockwork" — well, something is terribly wrong. Flying Lessons. Several hundred men, women, and children will live to see the New Year thanks to good luck: The terrorist on Delta/Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit was inadequately trained, and one passenger turned out to be remarkably quick-thinking and courageous. But a multi-billion dollar government security system failed. The question now: Is the Obama administration smart enough to go to school on this attack? Red flags waved, ignored. The more I think about the Christmas all-but-bombing, the angrier I get. At the multiple failures that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to get on the plane with explosives sewn inside his underwear. And at the Obama administration's initial, everything's-fine-everybody-move-right-along reaction. Top 10 Disasters of Flight 253. [#1] Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is on a terrorist watch list and banned from the U.K. His father has warned U.S. authorities about him. He has no passport, checks no luggage and pays for a one-way ticket in cash. He is allowed to board Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Man involved in inflight fight gets 30 days in jail. A 31-year-old man has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for fighting with a fellow passenger on an Air Canada jet that was forced to cut short a flight to Germany and land in Montreal. Montreal police spokesman Daniel Lacoursiere said that Khodr Ahmad was sentenced in Montreal court Thursday [12/31/2009] after pleading guilty to a charge of disturbing the peace. Smuggled Gun Found On Phoenix-Bound Plane. A US Airways employee and passenger are being questioned after an unloaded handgun was discovered aboard a Phoenix-bound flight originating in Philadelphia, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. Souces say a passenger allegedly handed a bag containing the weapon to an airline employee, who bypassed the security screening before giving it back to the passenger, reports Orr. Ammunition was also found on the plane. Undercover Agent Obtained Passport with Fraudulent IDs; Passed Airport Security. Carrying a fake New York birth certificate and a phony Florida driver's license, an investigator walked into a Maryland post office in December to apply for a U.S. passport, filling out documents with the Social Security number of a man who died in 1965. In four days, the investigator received his passport. Marshals kept off plane at Reagan. A team of federal air marshals was prevented from protecting a recent flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport because a gate agent erroneously said they did not have the correct paperwork, say marshals familiar with the incident. … Even the intervention of higher-ups in the Homeland Security Department could not persuade the airline to allow the armed law-enforcement agents aboard, and the plane departed unprotected an hour and a half late, the sources said. Loaded gun slips through airport security. A passenger who went through an airport security checkpoint — before remembering that he had a loaded gun — is facing charges after going back to report his error, authorities said. … The TSA contacted airport police, who charged the man with possessing or transporting a firearm into an air carrier terminal where prohibited, a misdemeanor, and released him. The Editor says... There is a lesson to be learned here: If you do the right thing and admit your gun made it through security, you will be punished. Overhaul cuts sky marshals by a third. The number of armed sky marshals is to be slashed on some international flights as part of an overhaul of the highly secretive anti-terror program. Changes to the Air Security Officer program — created as a last-ditch defence against hijackers following the attacks of September 11, 2001 — will result in the number of marshals on some 747 flights being reduced by a third. Afghan plane hijacker is now working as a cleaner at Heathrow. Airport security was condemned as a joke after an Afghan involved in the Stansted hijacking was found to be working at Heathrow as a cleaner. Police arrested Nazamuddin Mohammidy at Terminal 5 where he showed his British Airways pass allowing him access to secure areas. U.S. Airport Screeners Fail 'Would-Be' Bomber Tests. Federal agents tested security screeners at 21 U.S. airports by carrying bomb-making materials — and not a single would-be "suicide bomber" was detected. "In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through," according to a report from NBC Nightly News that cited government sources. Al Gore Inadvertently Breaches Airport Security. Former vice president Al Gore was involved in a security breach at the Nashville Airport when an American Airlines employee led him and his entourage around security, a clear violation of policy. Bloggers attack feds after agent forgets gun in airport. Bloggers are raising their voices in unison calling for punishment for a federal agent who left her gun in a restroom inside the secured area at Milwaukee's airport. "Using the agency's own standards, this agent should be headed to the slam," wrote [one blogger7]. Airline baggage handlers brought guns, drugs on flight. Two baggage handlers carried a bag containing guns and drugs on a commercial flight from Florida to Puerto Rico, but passengers were in no danger, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman said. The baggage handlers used their employee uniforms and airport identification cards to enter restricted areas, bypass screeners with the bag and board the commercial Delta flight, according to court documents released Wednesday [3/7/2007]. [Notice that the TSA said the "passengers were in no danger" with guns aboard the plane. If that is true, why will they not allow the pilots to carry guns?] Most fake bombs missed by screeners. Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY. Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows. Airport boss won't take the blame. Chicago's aviation commissioner on Thursday [11/08/2007] contradicted charges that illegal immigrants gained access to secure areas of O'Hare using deactivated city security cards — and she put blame for the problem on the federal government and private employers. On Wednesday [11/7/2007], federal and local authorities cracked down on a company that allegedly got illegals identity badges so they could load cargo and meals onto commercial jetliners. Cannabis blunder at Tokyo airport. An unwitting passenger arriving at Japan's Narita airport has received 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry, officials say. A customs officer hid a package of the banned substance in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security. Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in. Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials. The Editor says... One thing is certain: the cops won't believe you when you say, "I don't know how this got in my suitcase." Twelve year old boy evades security clampdown. Despite a high level of alert at British airports, a 12-year-old boy managed to board a plane at Gatwick without a passport, ticket or boarding pass. Boy Sneaks Past Security, Boards Flight. A 9-year-old boy from Lakewood sneaked past security and talked his way onto a Southwest Airlines flight at Sea-Tac Airport Monday night after running away from home. … Before the boy was able to get on the plane he had to get a boarding pass at the airline's ticket counter. Update: Boy who hopped flights caught again at Sea-Tac. The boy who talked his way onto airline flights to Texas last year has attempted another getaway. A Seattle TV station, KING, reports Semaj Booker was stopped today by the Transportation Security Administration at a Seattle-Tacoma International Airport gate after he failed to show a boarding pass. His mother had reported him missing to Tacoma police at 3 a.m. Mother of 9-year-old runaway expresses pride in son's escapades. The mother of the 9-year-old boy who took two flights in an attempt to run away to Dallas said she was stunned but proud to hear about her son's actions, according to a TV interview scheduled to air Wednesday night. … [In case you have forgotten] The boy tried to run away to Dallas on Jan. 15 because he disliked Washington and wanted to be with his grandfather. … He faces charges in connection with a high speed chase in a stolen car on Highway 512 the day before his airline escapade. These questions came to the Editor's mind, in this order: 1. Where's his father? 2. Why hasn't this kid been locked up? 3. If he likes Dallas so much, why send him back to Washington? 4. Why is his mother, the enabler, so proud of him? Congressman charged after altercation. Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) was involved in an altercation last night [8-19-2007] at Dulles Airport. He was allegedly angered by the amount of time it was taking to get his luggage and tried to push his way through the United Airlines baggage claim office. Filner: 'Regret' for Airport Incident. Rep. Bob Filner said Wednesday [8/29/2007] he regrets a recent incident at Dulles Airport in which he allegedly pushed a United Airlines baggage employee, resulting in assault and battery charges. Filner, D-Calif., offered few details of the Aug. 19 incident in a three-sentence statement issued after he returned from a week in Iraq. Discovery of dazed stowaway grounds flight. A man scaled a security fence at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and boarded a Delta jet in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, landing himself in jail while preventing a flight to Cincinnati from taking off. Gregory S. Wester of Fuquay-Varina walked onto the Boeing 737-800 and quietly took a seat while a cleaning crew was working on the plane about 3:30 a.m., airport spokeswoman Mindy Hamlin said. Wester had climbed a 7-foot fence topped with barbed wire to gain access to the tarmac at the airport's Terminal A. Commentary on the article above is pretty hilarious. Warning on air traffic hacking. Hackers armed with little more than a laptop computer could conjure up phantom planes on air traffic controllers' screens using new radar technology called ADS-B — Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcasting. The technology has been enthusiastically endorsed by the airline industry because it is less costly than radar. But critics say the system has no way of verifying whether a plane is where it claims to be or if it exists at all. An Inside Examination of Airport Security: In the first week of December, 2004, the media focused on the problem of missing security personnel uniforms and badges reported in Canada. Just how our friends to the north learned of the loss of over 1100 uniforms and badges is not clear, but it was reported that at least one uniform was offered for sale on E-bay — hopefully, that was not how the problem came to the attention of Canadian authorities. Airport screening tests were sabotaged. Federal transportation officials and a private security firm at San Francisco International Airport worked together to undermine a federal investigation of passenger screening at security checkpoints, according to a report released Thursday [11/16/2006] by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. As TSA Claims Progress in Securing Commercial Aviation From Explosives, Little Has Changed. Despite the repeated efforts of federal law enforcement in breaking up criminal enterprise activities on airport ramps in all regions of the country where they have arrested workers involved in the movement of narcotics, ramp workers still continue to enter and leave daily without being subjected to physical screening. Even after other ramp employees were found to be illegal aliens working in sterile security zones with the highest level of security clearance and the identification and arrests of workers with significant criminal histories and outstanding arrest warrants, airport workers with access to restricted areas, cargo, baggage and aircraft are still not physically screened before accessing sterile areas. Air marshal leaves plane after dropping bullets. A U.S. air marshal removed himself from a Southwest Airlines flight Thursday [6/1/2006] after dropping a clip of bullets on the floor just before the plane was to take off, an airline spokeswoman said. US arrests 55 illegal workers at Dulles airport. U.S. immigration officials said on Wednesday [6/14/2006] they had arrested 55 illegal immigrants who were working at a construction site in the secure area at Dulles International Airport. TSA: Computer glitch led to Atlanta airport scare. A bomb scare that lead authorities to evacuate security checkpoints for two hours at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on 19 Apr 2006 was reported by the Transportation Security Administration director as the result of a "software malfunction". The detected device was part of a routine test, but apparently could not be located. Cockpit device narrowly averts collision. A Chicago-bound jet came within seconds of a midair collision at 25,000 feet over Indiana, but a cockpit safety device alerted the pilots flying the other plane of the danger ahead, officials said Wednesday [11/14/2007]. … The controller, a 26-year veteran, appeared to have forgotten about the United Express plane after he mistakenly removed its electronic identification tag from his radar screen in preparation to hand off the plane to controllers in a different air sector, officials said. TSA Says Shoe X-Rays at Airports Can Detect Explosives, Despite Security Report. On Sunday [8/13/2006], the TSA made it mandatory for shoes to be run through X-ray machines as passengers go through metal detectors. They were begun in late 2001, after ["Shoe Bomber" Richard] Reid's arrest. The shoe scans have been optional for several years. Police Seek Clues After Man Vanishes at Mineta San Jose Int'l Airport. David Eugene Brewer was on his way to Hawaii to rebuild his life when he disappeared on Halloween in plain sight at Mineta San Jose International Airport. At the airport, Brewer encountered two polite strangers who let him use their cell phones to call his mother in Kauai, according to San Jose police. He also talked to her on an airport courtesy phone. And then he vanished. Air marshals face smuggling charges. Two federal air marshals are facing drug charges after allegedly agreeing to smuggle cocaine from a man who turned out to be a government witness, the U.S. attorney's office in Houston, Texas, announced Monday [2/13/2006]. Midway scare is blamed on glitch. Errors by screeners — not random computer glitches that the federal government previously blamed — were responsible for false alarms over weapons that sparked the recent evacuation of Midway Airport and two other U.S. airports, according to the Transportation Security Administration. Houston Airport Rangers. Just fill out a form and undergo a background check, and you too can become a front-line fighter as Houston's airport tries to keep our nation safe and secure. No experience necessary. You don't even have to be a U.S. citizen. No, it's not [intended to be] a joke. The Airport Rangers program is intended to promote both security and community participation, according to the official description. It's a volunteer mounted patrol that rides horses along the pristine wooded trails that form the perimeter of the 11,000-acre airport. Most "spiked" stories of 2003: Although it's attracted little media attention, the "ramp" or "back side" of an airport, where unscreened workers and vendors have access to baggage, air cargo, food supplies, mechanics' equipment and the aircraft itself, represents the gateway to the next terrorist attack on U.S. airliners, predicts a former airline security consultant. Biometric IDs for Airport Employees. Transportation employees are a weak link in airplane security. We're spending billions on passenger screening programs like CAPPS-II, but none of these measures will do any good if terrorists can just go around the systems. Current TSA policy is that airport workers can access secure areas of airports with no screening whatsoever except for a rudimentary background check. Illegals, Sabotage, and Security: Bob Tamburini, an Airbus A300 Captain said "Indications that saboteurs are 'at work' on the payrolls of airlines adds another dimension to air safety. Crash investigators can no longer rule out sabotage/terrorism in a 'rush to judgment' designed to appease the flying public — not when FAA certified mechanics, (possibly) linked to terrorist cells, can loosen attachment bolts on aircraft tails and engines. The time has come to ensure that all airport/airline employees meet the strictest background checks, regardless of the associated costs." Airport Security Issues: Although there has been an increase in the level of security at many airports, the advice on this page should provide an overview of what to expect when you are traveling through many of the world's airports. Holes in the Security Net: Numerous airport security risks listed and illustrated. Preventing the preventable: Congress has now required that, by year's end, all checked baggage at all U.S. airports is to be screened by explosive detection systems. These fast hi-tech machines are equipped with artificial intelligence packages to decide what all the data their sensors are taking means. Automated data evaluation and decision making is critically important, since these machines will be operated by brethren of those mental giants who now scan your carry-on luggage — sometimes with their x-ray machine unplugged. Airport evacuations due to errant bomb-scanners: CTX units blamed for L.A. and Sacramento scares, yet the government orders 100 more. Airport Baggage Scanners Flawed: Unannounced tests in the months before September 11 repeatedly found lapses by the $1 million baggage scanners that the federal government plans to deploy at airports around the country to detect explosives, according to the U.S. Arrests Foreign Airport Workers: Twenty foreign nationals who work at Logan International Airport [Boston] have been charged with lying to obtain badges that gave them access to secure areas of the facility, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday [2/27/2002]. Agent: FAA buried lapses. The Federal Aviation Administration covered up security shortcomings at airports for years by manipulating tests and ignoring loopholes that its agents reported, a leader of an FAA team that tested security says. 80% of airport's screeners are non-citizens. Congressman asks of statistic, "What is wrong with this picture?" The airport security charade: The real security for today's flights is on the plane itself, made up of cabin crews and passengers. The security people at the airport can't stop a terrorist from boarding a plane if they don't have solid proof of what he intends to do. In other words, today's improved airport security is a big joke. Airport Security "No Better Than It Was On September 10th," Experts Say. Two leading counter-terrorism experts say the attempted bombing of a trans-Atlantic flight by an alleged terrorist with explosives in his shoes proves airport security measures are failing. Covert airport-security inspectors "grounded": Elite Red Team answering congressional mail instead of testing checkpoints for weaknesses. Congress Federalizes Airport Workers: The plan replaces the private, widely criticized companies responsible for screening passengers and baggage with widely criticized government workers. Unions and Democrats Stand to Gain from Airport Security Bill : Estimates show that unions could collect $27 million if airport security workers joined them. Don't Federalize Airport Security : In response to tremendous fear of flying in the wake of the Sept. 11 disaster, both the White House and Congress have been desperately searching for ways to beef up airport security. But one "solution" is no solution at all and may lead to weaker security. That bad idea, having the federal government take over airport security, should be rejected. S.F. airport flunked secret security test: Undercover federal agents acting as terrorists managed to break through security points at San Francisco International Airport 99 percent of the time during a 1998 sting, a secret Federal Aviation Administration memo reveals. Yet top FAA officials here took "no corrective action," an FAA whistleblower agent complained, even though agents were able to sneak even machine guns past screeners. Screeners ignore "alarmed" luggage: The government says only about 10 percent of checked suitcases are now scanned for explosives. But the share may actually be far less, warn airport security specialists. Face recognition technology is a proven farce: Crowd surveillance kit using face recognition technology by Visionics has been a comic failure in tests by the Tampa, Florida police, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has discovered. By leveraging the Florida open-records law, the watchdog organization obtained system logs proving that the Visionics contraption has thus far failed to identify one single crook or pervert listed in the department's photographic database, while falsely identifying 'a large number' of innocent citizens. FAA-certified machine tied to 3rd bomb scare in 9 days: CTX bag scanner triggers another false alarm, clearing part of LAX terminal over kitchenware. Boondoggle.gov: A report on the federalized skies. The Senate fulfilled the Democrats' dream of putting 28,000 more people on the federal payroll. But the aftermath hasn't exactly been dreamlike. Public Sector Security: In addition to the broad resources provided by local and federal law enforcement agencies that daily exercise general police powers, more and more agencies of government have specialized law enforcement personnel to police compliance with their executive authority under agency regulations, codes and statutes. The responsibility for protecting government facilities and operations may be vested in yet a third category of public sector security with police powers to enforce laws necessary to protect public property. As a nation we are becoming more security conscious than in the past and more territorial about who will provide it. Airport Profiling Should Be Conducted by Trained and Trusted Profilers. Profiling, the art of identifying individuals for heightened scrutiny in this case, has been used successfully by Israel to identify passengers deemed to be a threat to their commercial aviation system. But profiling in the United States for the same purpose has raised the ire of the ACLU and other organizations concerned that it would unfairly single out minorities, particularly those most closely identified by race, ethnicity, religion and gender with the terrorists involved in 9/11 and other terrorist events around the world. Recommendations For Airport Security. The FAA has proved itself unable to handle the security requirements of today's airports. There are ways to vastly improve the situation. Hiring the Right People: At the end of the day good airport security is driven by good security personnel. … While the government is purchasing explosive detection equipment that costs in excess of $1 million per unit, and we need over 2,000 units, some members of Congress, and some officials of the Department of Transportation, expect screeners without a high school education to operate that equipment effectively. Not likely when you cannot read or comprehend the instruction manual! The Case of the Ubiquitous Box Cutters: Whether an airliner can be hijacked anymore with a box cutter or any other hand-held weapon is debatable, given reinforced cockpit doors and the like. What is more important is the fact that a box cutter can still make it through security after an $11 billion effort to keep it out. Airport Security: A Work in Progress. In aviation security, the cause of a security breach must be determined and corrected quickly because, unlike with other risks, they are much likelier to cause catastrophic harm. Are Some Passengers Safer Than Others? After its dogged insistence since 9/11 that objects with points or sharp edges (regardless of size) were a threat to aviation security, the TSA is now considering reversing itself, and recognizing that the mountain of pen knives and scissors it has confiscated were never really a hijacking threat. Even more astonishing is a plan to allow thousands of air travelers with the right employment pedigrees to pass onto to airliners with no screening at all as way to reduce screening costs and speed up the boarding process. Want to bring a bomb onto an airplane? CNN happily tells you how to do it. TSA tester slips mock bomb past airport security. Jason — that's the name CNN was asked to call him — slides a simulated explosive into an elastic back support. The mock bomb is as slim as a wallet; its fuse, the size of a cigarette. He wraps the support around his torso, and the bomb fits comfortably into the small of his back. It's hard to tell he's concealing anything; harder still when he dons a black T-shirt and a maroon golf shirt. Back to the Airline Insanity Page. Back to the Home page |
