FAA Found Lagging in Testing of Bomb-Detection Equipment

Technical glitches are slowing the Federal Aviation Administration’s efforts to develop new devices to protect airports and planes from terrorist bombs, congressional investigators reported Thursday.

As a result, the FAA has made little progress in meeting the goals of the Aviation Security Improvement Act of 1990, a report by the General Accounting Office said.

The law directed the FAA to speed up research and development so it would have new explosives detection equipment in place by last November.

“Although several devices show promise, technical problems are slowing the development and approval of the devices,” the GAO study said. “Similarly, FAA’s efforts to enhance aircraft survivability are promising but are several years from completion.”

The FAA has 40 detection projects under way but has conducted laboratory tests on only seven devices, the report said. None of them meets the FAA’s performance requirements.

An FAA advisory panel has estimated that approval of any new explosives detection equipment could be two to five years away, the report said.

FAA officials said they have not seen the study.

“The FAA is anxiously awaiting the report from the GAO,” FAA spokeswoman Liz Neblett said. “When it does come out, we will give it all due consideration and consider all of their recommendations.”

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said it found a number of weaknesses in the FAA’s security research program, including the agency’s reluctance to test new equipment in airports. FAA officials plan to rely on tests conducted at its lab, the study said.

“However, the airline industry and others disagree with FAA’s approach and believe that operational testing should be part of the certification process,” it said.

The report also criticized the FAA for lacking a strategy to guide security efforts to put new equipment in place.