Airport workers pass surprise security test

Jahna Berry
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 25, 2007 12:00 AM

PHOENIX - When airport restaurant cook Jose Vezquez clocked out of work at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, the Transportation Security Administration officers were waiting for him.

The TSA is ratcheting up unannounced employee searches at the eighth-busiest airport in the country.

On Tuesday, the Homeland Security agency searched the cook and 31 other Sky Harbor workers during a surprise check for weapons or other suspicious items.


An estimated 31,000 people work at Sky Harbor. Maintaining tight employee security helps keep the 41 million passengers who pass through Sky Harbor in a year safe, TSA officials say.

"The idea is to provide unpredictability," said Paul Armes, federal security director at the airport.

Aside from some pepper spray, no weapons were found on Tuesday, TSA officials said.

The random checks are part of the Aviation Direct Access Screening Program, which began last year.

The screenings come as the TSA and the airport industry work on a six-point program to scrutinize workers even more carefully than before.

And one recent incident - alleged gun-running by an Orlando, Fla., airport worker in March - has drawn attention to potential security breaches.

So far, about 24 TSA security teams at Sky Harbor have been trained for the surprise searches, Armes said.

Within a few months, all of the 1,000 TSA workers at Sky Harbor will have been trained to perform them Armes said.