LAX Security on Track, Chief Says

Officials of three of California’s biggest airports told a U.S. Senate committee Thursday that they are having serious difficulties with at least one of the looming federal mandates for improved screening and other security measures.

They were especially critical of a mandate to require explosives screening of all checked baggage.

Some of those representing airports in Sacramento, San Francisco and San Diego even suggested that the new procedures might hinder safety and would exacerbate the drop in passengers that most airports have experienced since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

By contrast, leaders of Los Angeles International Airport said they expect to meet the deadlines--if enough new employees and baggage screening machines are available.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who convened the hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee at Los Angeles International Airport to assess progress toward compliance with the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, urged officials to focus on getting the job done quickly.

“Now is not the time to slow down,” Boxer said at the start of the hearing. “We need to make this work.”

But some airport officials said Thursday that they would like more time before they begin screening every piece of luggage for explosives, as required by the act.

To meet the Dec. 31 deadline would require the costly installation of cumbersome devices that will cause long lines, crowding and confusion, the officials said.

Many airports have complained that they have no space for the bulky, expensive machines currently available for the task.

And while the machines are good at finding explosives, they also have unacceptably high false-alarm rates, some airport officials say.

“For airport security, many in the industry consider the time given ... to make the necessary changes to be adequate for some airports but inadequate for others,” said G. Hardy Acree, director of the Sacramento County Airport System.

Sacramento International, one of the few airports around the nation that is experiencing record increases in passengers, got its federal security overseer a week ago and does not yet have a plan for implementing the baggage-screening requirement, Acree said.

He described his “sense of frustration with how the process is working, and in some cases, not working” and urged security planners to take passenger convenience into consideration or risk losing their business.

Thelma F. Bowens, senior director for aviation at San Diego International Airport, said the facility is on track to meet a Nov. 19 deadline to replace privately employed passenger screeners with federal employees.

But having a system in place by Dec. 31 for checking all baggage for explosives “is another matter altogether,” she said.

Given the shortage of the preferred detection devices and the complexity of installing the equipment, she called the task “truly overwhelming.”

San Diego is being forced to proceed using devices called explosive trace detectors, which Bowens said are less effective and more disruptive and must be installed in the crowded lobby areas of the terminal.

Waiting until an integrated and automated system of detecting explosives becomes available “will not result in a diminished level of protection,” Bowens said.

“We will still be using the same means as today--canine detection teams, positive bag matching, hand searches and other methods,” Bowens said.

Los Angeles officials said they are ready, however, thanks to their planning work with consultants since spring.

“I am confident that we have sound plans in place to meet the Nov. 19 passenger screening deadline and the Dec. 31 deadline to screen 100% of checked baggage,” said Paul Green, chief operating officer of Los Angeles World Airports, which runs Los Angeles International Airport and three smaller city-owned airports.

But the crucial caveat, Green added, is whether the security administration will be able to hire enough people to screen passengers and deliver the equipment on time.

David M. Stone, the recently arrived federal security director at LAX, said funding issues have required the administration to undertake a “reassessment of its rollout strategy,” complicating an already extraordinary challenge posed by the two deadlines.

Boxer reiterated her long-standing opposition to bending the deadlines but found common ground with those testifying Thursday in her interest in developing so-called trusted traveler programs and other high-tech innovations that could help solve security problems.

Sophisticated identification cards could be issued to pilots, flight attendants and frequent fliers who agree to background checks that would exempt them from flight-by-flight screening procedures.

Airport officials estimate such a program could reduce screening lines by about 25%.

Boxer invited four private firms to display their high-tech aviation security wares outside the hearing room, including an identification card by LaserCard Systems.

Among the other displays was a baggage container by TelAir International.

The device is designed to absorb the force of a suitcase that explodes inside.