U.S.-European Talks Will Focus on Terrorism in Skies : Transportation Secretary to Begin Meetings Today With Aviation and Security Officials

Urging a “global approach” to combatting terrorism in the skies, Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner today begins a series of high-level meetings with aviation officials and security experts across Europe.

Skinner, who has scheduled talks in five European capitals, beginning today in Rome, will confer with his counterparts on a broad range of issues--some of them potentially fractious.

Concerned about the escalation of terrorism underscored by the December bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, Skinner and the European officials will focus on ways to share security information, on development of more uniform procedures to counter threats and on how they can best use technology to detect explosives.

“The placement of such (detection) devices in airports overseas requires diplomatic and technical coordination,” Skinner told a news conference for foreign journalists before leaving Washington on Friday, “and I hope to help facilitate that process during my meetings.” Skinner plans to follow his talks in Rome with one-day discussions in Bonn, Bern, London and Paris.

Passenger for ‘Each Bag’

While technology will be high on his agenda, Skinner also will focus on “non-technical innovations” in air security, said David Prosperi, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Transportation Department, including “making sure each bag has a passenger.”

Meanwhile, Thermedics Inc., of Woburn, Mass., is scheduled to announce today that it has successfully tested for the Federal Aviation Administration a hand-held device for detecting plastic explosives, which are the most difficult to find. The detector, called Egis, costs $124,000 and “looks like a portable vacuum cleaner,” David Fine, Thermedics vice president, said in an interview Sunday. He said he expects the FAA “to fairly rapidly approve these for airports,” where they would be used to scan carry-on luggage.

100 Bomb Detectors

At an April 3 news conference, Skinner, outlining efforts to improve air security, announced plans to install 100 non-portable bomb detectors at high-risk airports in the United States and abroad to inspect luggage. The FAA has spent $60 million on explosives detection measures over the last four years.

At that same news conference, the secretary also announced deployment of additional FAA security specialists to overseas airports, a plan that could anger officials of other governments, who might view such moves as encroachment on their sovereignty.

In fact, the more involved the United States becomes in security at overseas airports--sharing security information and scrutinizing ground crews, for example--the more it risks protests from its allies.

Therefore, during his weeklong trip to the five countries, Skinner must be prepared to allay these anxieties about sovereignty and overcome territorial objections, while dealing with the fearsome problem of terrorism--a problem accentuated by the pain and prodding of families who lost loved ones in the bombing of Flight 103 last December.

Skinner spoke about both questions during his Friday news conference, acknowledging that “all countries have legitimate legal concerns about the extraterritorial application of aviation security regulations, as well as sovereignty issues.”

“Nevertheless,” he added, “none of us has a monopoly on the information or expertise available to counter the threat of terrorism.”

At one point, Skinner said: “The civilized world has a shared responsibility to secure the continued safety of the skies.”

Driven by what an aide called his “personal commitment” to solving the Pan Am bombing, Skinner signaled Friday that he will use that act of terrorism as a rallying point in his talks with the Europeans.

Global Approach Needed

“The tragic destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 demonstrated that civil aviation remains a target for criminal and terrorist acts,” he told the news conference. He cited the need to “remain vigilant to counter new tactics and new equipment employed by terrorists. To do so, a global approach to the problem of aviation security is essential.”

Nevertheless, several questions from foreign reporters at the news conference foreshadowed sovereignty concerns that European officials certainly will express.

One correspondent noted that a new U.S. rule requires foreign airlines to get FAA approval of the line’s airport security arrangements for direct flights to this country and that Europeans had objected to the rule as a “unilateral imposition of American authority.” Does he intend to change the rule? Skinner was asked.

“I intend to discuss with them their concerns and discuss the merits behind our suggestions,” Skinner replied.

While he did not respond directly to that question, at another point during the news conference Skinner acknowledged the pressure he will encounter in his efforts to implement stringent security measures at foreign airports.

“This is not an attempt by me to impose unilaterally . . . significant requirements upon foreign governments that they don’t find acceptable,” he said. “So it may very well be that we may modify our program after this trip.”

Regardless of whether that happens, Prosperi predicted success for Skinner’s talks. “At the end of the week,” said Prosperi, “West Europeans are going to know that America has a transportation secretary who is concerned about these (security) issues.”