U.S. Aide Sees No Quick Fix on Air Terror

U.S. Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner, ending a five-day trip to drum up European support for new aviation anti-terrorism measures, said here Thursday that there will be no quick fixes, but that any responsible official who doesn’t make airline security his top priority “is placing passengers . . . at risk.”

“I don’t see how anybody in the wake of Pan Am (Flight) 103 can put their head down at night and feel comfortable unless they have done everything they can to make sure that travel on airlines in their country is safe, without regard to whose flag they carry,” Skinner told American correspondents at a breakfast meeting here.

His comments appeared to reflect tension between Washington and some European governments in the wake of the terrorist bomb that blew the Pan Am jumbo jet out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, last Dec. 21, killing 270 people. Flight 103 originated in Frankfurt, West Germany, and had stopped in London en route to New York.

Skinner wants tough new security restrictions imposed on all carriers flying to and from the United States, and the U.S. campaign has annoyed European officials who view it as an infringement on their sovereignty.

While he tried Thursday to put the best face on his meetings with civil aviation and intelligence officials in five European countries, Skinner clearly failed to win them completely over to his view.

He said the British and French governments, particularly, had gotten the impression the United States was trying to bypass them.

“They want us to work through them, not around them,” Skinner said. “It is my intention to work through them and with them, not around them. Once I have convinced them of that, their concerns seem to dissipate.”

Additional Talks Set

Skinner added that “we probably will be, in the near future, reaching agreement with those governments on how the airport assessments will proceed.” And British officials said Thursday that representatives of the two governments will hold additional meetings over “the next few days” to draw up new airport security measures.

Skinner, who visited Italy, West Germany, France, and Switzerland before coming to London, was also trying to negotiate agreements to install advanced new explosives detection devices, known as thermal neutron analysis units, at the largest international airports. He said the units would be capable of detecting plastic explosives like those believed to have caused the Pan Am disaster.

The first production unit is to go into service at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in July. Soon after that, Skinner and his British counterpart, Paul Channon announced Thursday, one will be installed at London’s Gatwick.

Channon stressed, however, that the Gatwick unit is experimental.

Skinner said he hopes there will be “several” machines installed in Europe by the end of the year, and that ultimately “we’re looking for installation of a couple of hundred” around the world.

Skinner said he is also seeking permission from European and other governments to station additional Federal Aviation Administration intelligence officers abroad.

Skinner refused to discuss the ongoing international investigation into the Pan Am bombing, but he did say that the FAA is trying to work out better methods of disseminating information about threats to civil aviation.

He stressed that “there is no information I’m aware of that would have alerted anybody to the specific threat to Pan Am 103, and any information of a general nature regarding threats was disseminated to the proper personnel. . . . The system did not break down.”

However, Skinner added, “The system could work better and some information in more detail could have been disseminated.”

He said that “if appropriate, flights will be canceled and the public will be warned” about future security threats. But “they won’t be warned of every threat.”