Transportation Secretary cracks down on airport security violations

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has probably dreaded thumbing through his press clippings. Day after day, it seems, journalists highlight every hole in the country's airport security system and each lapse by airport screeners.

Last month, the media had a field day reporting that Argenbright Security Inc., one of the nation's largest screening firms, had hired convicted felons and illegal aliens. And then there was the startling story about how one airline passenger--who said he had forgotten he was carrying a loaded gun--had slipped through the security checkpoint in New Orleans.

On October 30, Mineta finally had had enough. At a transportation security summit, he announced that the Federal Aviation Administration would begin to crack down on all security lapses. If secure airport areas are breached, he said, the FAA will immediately stop flights, empty the concourse, and rescreen all passengers. In addition, if the FAA finds untrained or incompetent screeners, officials will order a similar rescreening process.

"I want consistent accountability," he told summit participants. "I want confidence restored in the screening system, and the way to accomplish that goal under the current system is to know that when people fail to meet the current requirements, it is going to sting."

And that hasn't been a hollow promise. In the past several days, the FAA has taken the following actions:

• Delayed seven flights and ordered more than 1,000 passengers to pass through security a second time at the American Airlines concourse at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport after agents discovered that one screener wasn't using a metal-detector wand.
• Demanded a recheck of nearly 500 Vanguard Airlines passengers at Kansas City International Airport, because a screener didn't have the appropriate training and wasn't being supervised.
• Shut down the Southwest Airlines concourse at Baltimore/Washington International Airport when a female passenger breached security.
• And perhaps most notably, Mineta announced that the FAA will retrain all of the screeners at Chicago O'Hare International Airport--and possibly levy a large fine against United Air Lines--after a man carrying several knives, a can of pepper spray, and a stun gun was able to pass through the security checkpoint as he tried to board a United flight. Mineta called the security breach "a failure of dramatic dimensions."

Scott Brenner, the FAA's assistant administrator for public affairs, admits that the agency hasn't been as tough on security matters in the past, because security screening has always been a responsibility of the airlines, not the federal government. Still, he disputes the notion that the FAA is some sort of lackey to the airline industry. When it comes to airplane safety and design, he contends, the FAA and the industry have worked well together. "Our safety record is unmatched," he said.

Brenner believes that the FAA crackdown will produce some beneficial side effects. For starters, he said, it will force the airlines and the security firms to make needed improvements in their security procedures. Indeed, Argenbright--the firm responsible for the lapse at O'Hare--said this week that it was implementing new security measures that go "above and beyond current FAA regulations."

Forcing these kinds of improvements, Brenner says, is particularly important, since no one knows how long it will take Congress to finalize legislation transferring some or all of the responsibility for security screening to the federal government. Furthermore, the FAA hopes that the tough crackdown will help restore the public's confidence in the nation's aviation system.

Of course, shutting down concourses and delaying flights just because one screener forgets to frisk a passenger with a metal-detector wand will certainly hurt airlines' bottom lines, which are already in trouble. But, at least for now, airlines say they support the FAA's tougher stance.

"We wholeheartedly share the Secretary's concerns," said Michael Wascom, the spokesman for the Air Transport Association, which represents the major U.S. airlines. "Ignorance or incompetence is no excuse."

Southwest Airlines agrees. "We realize it is an inconvenience to our customers," said spokeswoman Beth Harbin. "[But] your average person--because it is about security--believes that it is well worth it."

Yet one airline lobbyist wonders how long the public will put up with constant shutdowns and delays caused by security lapses. "You can't travel freely in this country and ... not [find] some holes [in security]. There always will be holes," the lobbyist said.

But since September 11, with Americans skittish about aviation safety and security, the holes in the system have become magnified.

"We never tolerated them before, and we certainly don't tolerate them now," said Southwest's Harbin. "Unfortunately, they've just taken on a different level now."