Airport-security system in U.S. riddled with failures

[icymist]

Sunday, July 11, 2004 - Page updated at 12:18 A.M.

Airport-security system in U.S. riddled with failures

Copyright 2004, The Seattle Times Company

By Cheryl Phillips, Steve Miletich and Ken Armstrong
Seattle Times staff reporters

The TSA was supposed to be the fix.
But more than 2-1/2 years after it was created, the Transportation Security Administration itself needs a fix.

As Sept. 11, 2001, grows more distant, airline passengers complain more about long lines than feeling vulnerable. Yet lax security and low morale seep through the federal agency responsible for protecting them, The Seattle Times has found.

Management memos, as well as firsthand accounts of more than 100 screeners and supervisors interviewed by The Times, depict an agency in crisis.

Even as government officials warn of another attack, TSA is ill-prepared to meet that threat.

In Seattle, airlines were caught loading unscreened luggage onto planes. In Los Angeles, a supervisor waved around a passenger's gun, sending one screener running for cover. And in Houston, one lapse so alarmed screeners they complained to Congress.

More at this

[SheilaT]

1. Airport security has always been

something of a joke. I was a ticket agent at National Airport from 1969-1979, which includes the time when "security" was put in place.

It's important to remember why the original security system got started, which was to put a halt to airplanes being hijacked to Cuba. And it worked. Just the presence of screeners and metal detectors discouraged almost everyone who wanted to be flown to Cuba. Of course, this didn't stop truly determined hijackers, such as those who pulled of September 11th. Nor did it stop a "disgruntled former employee" from being able to bypass security in late 1987 with a gun, and subsequently killing the pilots and crashing the plane. Now all crew members must also go through security.

There's probably no perfect security system, one which would actually stop all potential hijackers/murders from boarding, other than either requiring all be strip-searched, or perhaps El-Al's solution of carefully questioning all passengers and refusing anyone they just don't want to transport. El-Al can do this because they don't operate thousands of flights every day, unlike so many U.S. carriers.

Every time I need to fly somewhere these days, I carefully consider other options, and I've been driving when I used to fly before, because it's not worth the hassle. Not to mention that as much as I'd like to lose 15 pounds, I don't think the enforced starvation of flying is the best way to do so.

[JCMach1]

2. Security is back to pre- 9/11 levels

The skies are NOT safe.

[Cocoa]

3. Bush response

"All I know is, Saddam Hussein was a THREAT."

[camero]

4. Could have fooled me

The last time I had to fly I was checked up, down, left, right, and sideways.

[NMDemDist2]

5. the sky's best security nowadays is the other passengers

there is no way no how they could pull the 9/11 chit again

Air travelers get pumped before the flight, and are ready to fight if they need to. There have been many reports of passengers taking down "questionable" actors on planes in the last 3 years

No matter what happens in pre flight screening, the passengers will be the final stand against another 9/11 and a gun won't help, the passengers will keep coming until the ammo runs out

that's my take anyway.....