Audit Able to Beat Security at Airports

As the government waged a “zero tolerance” policy against aviation security lapses after the Sept. 11 attacks, investigators were able to get knives, guns and fake bombs past airport baggage- and passenger-screening checkpoints, a government source said Monday.

Undercover investigators, conducting an audit of 32 airports for the Transportation Department’s inspector general, were also able to gain access to restricted areas or even board airplanes without being challenged by security on dozens of occasions, according to the source, who requested anonymity.

Inspector General Kenneth Mead’s report found that screeners missed knives 70% of the time, guns 30% of the time and simulated explosives 60% of the time, the source said.

The story was first reported in USA Today.

The tests were conducted while the screening checkpoints were still primarily under the supervision of the airline industry, with some oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration. The new Transportation Security Administration took over responsibility for airline security Feb. 17.

Security administration spokesman Paul Turk said the White House requested the inquiry. “The idea was to get a realistic assessment of potential needs,” he said.

The security agency is hiring 30,000 federal employees to take over passenger screening. On Monday, it began training the first 300 of 1,200 senior supervisors, who will run the airport checkpoints. The other 900 will be trained over the next three weeks. The supervisors all have law enforcement, security or military backgrounds, Turk said.

Security breaches caused the government to evacuate 59 airport concourses or terminals from Oct. 30 to March 7, forcing 2,456 flights to be delayed or canceled, the FAA says. Passengers on an additional 734 flights had to leave their seats and go through security a second time, the FAA said.

Former FAA security chief Billie Vincent said the report was not surprising, considering that checkpoints were staffed by the same low-paid, poorly trained screeners who were there before Sept. 11.

In addition, Vincent said, current equipment cannot detect explosives, neither can it detect many varieties of cutting tools.

“The technology at the screening points is not there,” Vincent said. “The current metal detectors won’t do the job. If you turn it high enough to detect that much metal, you will have an alarm on every person going through.”