Airline Beefs Up Security, but Will Anyone Buy It?
United Airlines has taken a laudable step toward tighter air carrier security. In response to the TWA Flight 800 disaster, UAL President John Edwardson said that the carrier will now require two forms of identification from passengers. It also will not accept small packages without opening them first and will increase spot searches of bags on international trips.
In addition, United might take the more rigorous action of not allowing a domestic flight to take off if a person who checked a bag failed to take a seat on the flight, a procedure that so far has been limited to international flights.
The unanswered questions now are how far is United willing to go in terms of enforcing these measures over the long haul and will the rest of the industry follow suit or leave United alone in making the safety changes. Spokesmen for most other air carriers have declined to comment or said they are satisfied with current security arrangements. The flying public ought to find those responses unacceptable.
True, the nation is perhaps weeks or even months away from knowing whether a catastrophic mechanical failure or an act of sabotage caused TWA Flight 800 to explode in midair on July 17, killing all 230 aboard. But a definitive answer is not required to know that U.S. airlines and airports lag far behind some international counterparts in guarding against terrorism.
Senior U.S. counter-terrorism officials and other intelligence experts have repeatedly warned that security is mired in the past, geared more toward potential hijackers and drug “mules” than toward explosives in a cargo bay. Moreover, a Times story on Saturday pointed out that terrorists have had a chillingly high success rate when they target airliners. And a Rand Corp. specialist says that one-third of 65 airline bombing attempts have resulted in casualties ranging from a few deaths to more than 300. These kinds of warnings and statistics put United Airlines’ move in the proper context.
UAL’s Edwardson admitted that “we are not sure U.S. customers would really want to put up” with the delays and added costs connected with the new security procedures. He estimated, for example, that matching baggage to passengers who actually board flights could cost as much as $250 million. That expense would be passed on to United’s customers.
Ultimately, U.S. passengers may have no choice but to accept the downsides of added security. It’s happened before. Not so long ago the industry expressed concern over whether passengers would accept X-ray machines and metal detectors at airline gates. They have since become a fixture of air travel. The times seem to require another such step.
