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State of air travel
FAA says airports improving securitySeptember 9, 1999 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In comprehensive testing of security at 79 United States airports, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspectors found serious problems. But a spokesman for the FAA says airports have moved quickly to try to close gaps in security. When a man bolted through a security checkpoint at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and disappeared down the United Airlines concourse on August 26, 130 flights were canceled, another 100 were delayed and the airport was shut down for hours. Authorities scrambled to inspect the concourse for anything suspicious. Months before, FAA inspectors had made over 3,000 attempts to gain access to restricted areas at 70 airports -- and they'd succeeded in slipping through security 339 times. "It was serious enough," says Adm. Cathal Flynn (Ret.), the FAA's associate administrator for civil aviation security, "that I said, 'If all the various layers that go into protecting the aircraft aren't working, ultimately we will require guards at aircraft to ensure that intruders don't get in them.'" Equipment available; needs more useFlynn tells CNN that airports now are complying with guidelines and security has improved. The FAA, he says, will push for greater use of an electronic explosive-detection device. The nation's 30 largest airports have 80 of these machines now -- at a cost of $1 million each -- to screen luggage for explosives. But the FAA study found the equipment isn't used enough. "There could be greater usage of those machines," says Alexis Stefani, Asst. Inspector General with the Department of Transportation. In March, another FAA survey found that agents could sneak through security doors, past fences and even board empty planes at five major U.S. airports. Stefani says "the human element" is the primary weakness in airport security. She tells CNN that when inspectors were able to slip into forbidden areas, airport personnel were at fault. "They weren't doing their jobs," Stefani says. "If they had challenged us, if they had stopped us, if they had asked, 'What are you doing here?' -- if they had closed the door -- we wouldn't have been as successful" in getting past security lines. Overall, the FAA's Flynn says, security at U.S. airports has been successful in preventing terrorism. "The record is good," he says, "but we're not complacent about it." "The record is that we've been able to prevent acts of terrorism against civil aviation in the United States and we want to keep it that way."
CNN's Carl Rochelle contributed to this report.
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