Security Check Nets 29 Airport Workers

Fingerprint checks carried out on 3000 workers at San Francisco Airport revealed that 29 employees had been convicted of felonies.

All have been forced to hand over their security badges which allowed them access to aircraft and other secure areas, according to a report in USA Today. An SFO official said that crimes included gun charges, sex offences and people convicted of kidnapping.

Another 13,000 workers at the airport are due to be screened under a new US federal law aimed at tightening security. The legislation requires fingerprints of employees working in secure areas at 420 US airports to be compared with those held in the FBI's database.

Airport officials emphasized that the check had revealed that a very small number of those screened, around 1 percent, proved to be felons.

http://news.airwise.com/stories/2001/12/1008502361.html