Airport Security Stakes Rising

The Fourth of July shootings at Los Angeles International Airport raise the stakes for the federal government as it plunges into a major security makeover at airports around the country.

The violence only underscores how difficult it will be for the new and untested Transportation Security Administration to find the few intent on causing harm among the millions of people who fly daily.

The task of “federalizing” 429 airports with different layouts, travel patterns and threats will be a vastly complicated undertaking that could encumber travel, especially during peak times, industry and government officials warn.

They predict longer lines and more intrusive searches as federal screeners take over hundreds of security checkpoints during this summer travel season and into the fall. And more delays by the end of the year, when millions of passengers will have to open their checked luggage to be inspected for explosives.

“Eventually, we should have one of the safest systems in the world, but getting there is a hassle,” said Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House aviation subcommittee. “Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you have the possibility of a complete meltdown.”

At the center of the security takeover is the TSA, a huge new law enforcement agency. Still unknown to many Americans, its employees will be picking through people’s carry-ons and asking some passengers to step aside to be patted down.

Congress has placed sky-high demands on the new agency: Create a system that will screen 670 million travelers and 1 billion checked bags a year in ways that cannot easily be undermined by terrorists. And install it by New Year’s Eve.

The goal might never have been realistic, and the agency is already behind the curve. It will need an estimated 33,000 screeners to check passengers and an additional 30,000 to examine luggage. It has deployed fewer than 3,000. Thousands of bomb detection units that the agency is buying may have to be replaced in a few years by automated machines that don’t require bags to be opened.

On Saturday, TSA officials said the agency plans to eventually extend its reach to ticket lobbies, garages and other public areas of the airport now patrolled by local and state police. It’s always been part of the congressional mandate, said a spokesman, but there is no timetable yet for widespread deployment of armed TSA police officers and undercover agents.

Gov. Gray Davis believes installing such guards “is the logical next step” in tightening security, his spokesman, Steve Maviglio, said Saturday. He said the issue has been under discussion.

Last week, an Egyptian immigrant opened fire at an El Al ticket counter at LAX, killing two people before an airline security guard fatally shot him. It raised new concerns about security before passengers ever get to a security checkpoint.

“Our responsibility for aviation security extends from the perimeter of the airport ... to checkpoints and beyond, in fact, to the successful conclusion of each and every flight,” a TSA statement said.

Airline and airport executives, however, fear that the security agency will turn out like a cross between Inspector Clouseau and Detective Sipowicz--an unpredictable combination of hapless bumbler and bullheaded cop.

TSA officials respond that federal security will be intelligent, thorough and customer-friendly. Its better-trained but unproven screeners will replace private security employees.

Yet within the aviation community, a consensus has formed that the TSA risks harming the very industry it was set up to protect. The agency’s leadership is perceived by some critics as isolated and unresponsive, heavy on law enforcement and military veterans who have little experience with the complex choreography of aviation.

“You have bright, intelligent people with unimpeachable law enforcement backgrounds,” said David Plavin, head of Airports Council International, a major trade group. “But they don’t know anything about transportation and they don’t understand what it means to keep the system moving. The first year or two of this process is going to be messy and ugly under the best of circumstances.”

Delta Air Lines estimates the industry will lose $3.8 billion in revenue this year because of people not flying to avoid the “hassle factor” of security.

In an interview, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta defended the security efforts. “I don’t think TSA has the tin ear the airports and airlines accuse it of having,” he said. “I think they are now listening.”

Returning to the previous security system is out of the question, Mineta added. “Security was minimal before,” he said. “There was no consistency and uniformity.”

The new system is on view at Baltimore-Washington International, the first major airport to be “federalized” with government screeners.

There are more checkpoint screeners, more searches--and longer lines, say BWI frequent fliers. A Travelocity survey found that BWI has the slowest checkpoints among major airports. Nationally, 63% of passengers said they cleared checkpoints in 15 minutes or less, while 42% of BWI passengers got through that quickly.

Airport security lines have generally been diminishing this year, and Mineta has said travelers should not have to wait more than 10 minutes at the new federal checkpoints. But there was near-gridlock at BWI on Memorial Day weekend.

“There were people looking at people, who were looking at people who were looking at you,” said Annapolis, Md., lawyer Harry Blumenthal, who flies out of BWI every week. “If anything was found suspicious, there were a lot of people looking at it. Even if it was innocuous, you would still be required to do a full search.”

Blumenthal’s trip to Florida turned into an endurance test. “It took me an hour to get to the head of the line, only to find out it was a holding line,” he said.

“I certainly didn’t say anything to the screeners about it, because if you act at all belligerent or concerned, next thing you know there’ll be a guy with a rifle in your face.”

The TSA is trying to smooth out glitches at BWI, airport officials said. The federal security force was trying to do too much at the beginning. For instance, new screeners were getting on-the-job training during peak hours. That has now stopped, BWI officials said.

“People feel more secure because of the federal presence, but with that comes longer time,” said BWI spokeswoman Melanie Miller.

The personnel-heavy approach is partly because of antiquated metal detectors and X-ray machines inherited from airline security, said Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), who chairs a panel that oversees the agency’s budget. “We’re in midstream here, right in the middle of this process, so there’s still a lot of ragged edges.”

The rough going is evident.

In Orlando, Fla., a TSA advance team recently showed up unannounced at the airport and set up a hiring center for screeners. When the airport director went to investigate--and introduce himself--he was threatened with arrest for trespassing in a federal area. The agency apologized.

In Louisville, Ky., the new TSA airport security chief was summarily suspended last month after he flashed his identification to help a passenger circumvent a checkpoint. Trying to assist a woman who was in a rush to catch her flight, he violated a rule that every passenger must be screened.

Even the elite air marshals have been humbled. Some have gone out on missions only to find that no arrangements had been made for flying them back home, a congressional official said.

Despite the confusion, many TSA employees express a sense of mission and earnest patriotism.

“I think the American public would be very, very proud if they saw the level of commitment and dedication,” said Gail Rossides, the TSA’s director of training.

“People are coming to work for the right reasons, to do the right thing. And these are not easy jobs. People are working seven days a week, 14 hours a day to get this done.”

The TSA also pays competitively. Air marshals start at $45,500; base pay for TSA law enforcement agents ranges from $31,100 to $36,400, and screeners start at $23,600 to $29,500, depending on experience.

One consequence has been an exodus of hundreds of officers from other federal agencies and local police departments. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has lost more than 560 agents to the TSA, including almost 400 Border Patrol officers.

The salaries come from the estimated $6.8 billion taxpayers will pour into the agency this year. That figure is more than 45 times what the Federal Aviation Administration spent on security in 2001.

Security is improving, said Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth Mead. He cited reinforced cockpit doors, much greater numbers of air marshals and the willingness of passengers to confront people behaving suspiciously. He also credited the TSA for bringing energy and discipline to its mission.

“The system we have today is much more effective than what we had before Sept. 11,” Mead said.

“It needs to be a lot better still. We still find alarming lapses, but when these lapses occur, they are paid attention to. I see a genuine interest in incorporating the lessons learned from mistakes into training.”

However, the two main initiatives that the TSA will be judged on this year appear to be in serious jeopardy. By Nov. 19, the agency must have federal screeners in place at 429 airports with regular commercial service. By Dec. 31, it must be able to screen all checked luggage for bombs using explosives detection technology.

Few observers think the timetable is realistic. When Mineta raised the same concern early this year, he was drowned out by an outcry from lawmakers. Since then, he has unswervingly insisted that the deadlines will be met.

“There has been a determination made by the administration as a whole that our obligation is to comply with the law,” Mineta said.

What if there aren’t enough federal screeners on hand by Nov. 19?

“To the extent that we don’t get our full strength at any airport, we may just have to cut some [checkpoint] lanes,” he responded.

What will happen at the remaining lanes?

“Long lines,” Mineta said. “Long lines. Long lines.”

Lawmakers wrote the deadlines into law because the Transportation Department had a notorious record of watering down security recommendations. Now there is a sense that Congress may have been too prescriptive.

“Haste makes waste,” said Carol Hallett, head of the Air Transport Assn., the main airline trade group. As a former U.S. Customs commissioner, Hallett once had to quickly hire 1,000 agents for the war on drugs.

“We found that doing anything of that magnitude in a short period of time, you make mistakes, you overlook things,” Hallett said.

The TSA is going to have to hire about 4,000 screeners a week to meet its deadlines.

Congress itself has made the TSA’s job more difficult simply by moving at its usual bureaucratic pace to approve legislation and funding. The debate over creating the agency bogged down for weeks last fall over the issue of whether screeners should be federal employees. When the Aviation and Transportation Security Act was finally signed Nov. 19, lawmakers began sending mixed messages about their level of commitment.

A senator seeking attention on an unrelated local matter stalled confirmation of TSA head John Magaw. Even now, the House and Senate have yet to pass $4.4 billion in emergency funding requested by President Bush. The agency is being kept solvent with transfers from other federal agencies, but that strategy can work for only a few more weeks before it runs into legal problems.

Mica, who had unsuccessfully argued to loosen the deadlines, said Congress may well have to make a midcourse correction. He complained that the rush to carry out the law has shut down a needed debate on what kind of aviation security system the country should have.

“Right now we have a pretty offensive system to passengers, because we’re almost assuming all of them are guilty,” Mica said.

“It’s almost the reverse of what our justice system is based on. We should be concentrating on risk and letting the 80-year-old grandmothers go by.”