Enough of the BS that we have been going through. Here is a clear and present danger!!!


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...d-security.htm

04/04/2002 - Updated 12:47 AM ET

Attendants question ground security

By Blake Morrison, USA TODAY

Air security index

Full coverage



Flight attendants are stepping up pressure to close what some call a back door to airport terrorism: ground-crew security.

Nearly seven months after the terrorist hijackings, they say thousands of airport mechanics, caterers and ramp workers still have access to airplanes and runways without passing through metal detectors or undergoing regular searches. The access continues, they say, despite provisions in the new Aviation and Transportation Security Act that require tighter measures.

The easy access creates "a huge, gaping hole just waiting to be exploited," says the leader of the nation's largest flight attendants union. Pat Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, says she will raise the issue Monday, when she meets with John Magaw, head of the new Transportation Security Administration.

Transportation Department spokesman Lenny Alcivar says ground-crew employees "must go through a thorough background and criminal records check as well as prescreening procedures."

At most airports, however, those workers are not subject to regular searches or asked to pass through metal detectors, as pilots and flight attendants are.

Attendants at Southwest Airlines are so concerned that their union has filed a grievance with the company. It alleges that the airline is "creating unsafe working areas and conditions" by failing to require ground workers to clear security checkpoints.

A Southwest spokesman says the airline is following security directives and checking its workers' backgrounds. One union leader says that's not enough to stop an employee from bringing a weapon to work. "We know there's disgruntled employees out there, and all it takes is one that's real disgruntled," says Greg Hofer, a Southwest attendant.

In 1987, for instance, an employee who was recently fired used his credentials to bring a gun aboard Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771. The man, David Burke, shot the pilots shortly after takeoff. The jet crashed 175 miles northwest of Los Angeles, killing all 43 aboard.

The transportation security act, passed by Congress after the hijackings, requires workers with access to a "secured area of an airport" to be screened in a manner "that will assure at least the same level of protection as will result from screening of passengers and their baggage."Those screening measures should be taken "as soon as practicable."

Whether background checks and random searches fulfill the provisions of the law is "an open question," says David Schaffer, counsel to the House subcommittee on aviation. He says the law requires "some sort of screening," but it doesn't require ground-crew employees "to go through metal detectors."

Deciding what steps to take won't be easy. Workers often leave and re-enter secured areas. Making them pass through metal detectors or regularly searching them would be burdensome. Moreover, because the layout of each airport is different, developing uniform standards could prove difficult.

Even so, Friend and Hofer say reports from flight attendants around the nation indicate that few searches of ground crew are being conducted, and only a swipe card is needed to access secured areas at many airports.

Results of tests from November through early February by the Transportation Department's inspector general underscore the concerns. Memos obtained by USA TODAY show that undercover agents secretly boarded aircraft or gained access to the runway in nearly half their tries.

"We're creating the illusion of security only where the traveling public can see," Friend says. "Meanwhile, the part that they can't see, nothing is being done."

Not so fast Mickey. Yes the FAA/TSA is overwhelmed and yes they are bumbling around the "window dressing" issue of aircraft and passenger safety. But at least they're moving forward. Ms. Friend's views are from a prospective that aviation insiders are after protecting the almighty passenger dollar and not aircraft safety. Her recent negotiations with several carriers her association represents, can attest to that. There may be several holes in her observations though. An agent friend of my wifes (HP ticket agent) says that since 9/11 there have been numerous checks on them, from finger printing to random searches, and that it would be foolish to think that an employee would take such actions. (did I just put foolish and ticket agent in the same sentance? what was I thinking ?)

Our (passenger's) safety is of the utmost importance in the boardrooms of these carriers, and the first line of defence is the young ladies and gentlemen that are our flight attendants. Like 'em or not, we'd all look to them for help the second something is out of the norm.

Anyone who has read the TSA Bill knows that each aircraft is searched by airline personnel before every flight. Ms. Friend's group has stated in the past that they'd prefer not to be the ones doing these searches. With this said who do you suspect would be best suited for this? The cockpit crew? that just opens another can of worms.

I can come up with 20 solutions to this problem. But the FAA and TSA have been put in charge (Lord help us) and that I can't stop. Quality banter in FT is good to vent these issues out... Mickey keep up the good work !

I just fell off my soapbox...

I have said for years that the biggest danget to our safety is the back door of the airport along with the low paid not-so-brights.

Their were rumors in Canadian news regarding box cutters under seats and on planes around 9/11. If true--and I certainly do not know if they were. Someone put the cutters on those planes. I have *****ed about caterers, toilet emptiers, cleaners and delivery people with access.

Today, CNN had a feature showing just how easy it IS NOW to get on the tarmac and close to planes.

Not-so-brights, the government and now FATASS has been making us jump through hoops, be groped, feltup, searched, delayed and inconvienienced ..ALL, in my opinion, to bolster air arafic and get Grandma (who loves the attention of a search) and grandpa non regular flyers back in the air.

All of what we have gone through has been smoke and mirrors. If the back door is that easy to penetrate, we are in trouble.

That is why I believe that we should take a stand on this issue.

While I think that some of the flight crews are genuinely concerned about this matter, I would bet that the rest are just irritated that they are subjected to screening, while the ramp and operations crews are not. Caterers, fuelers, mechanics, etc., ARE, in fact, subject to random screenings on the ramp.

BUT ISNT THAT THE POINT? EVERYONE SHOULD BE SCREENED. THAT IS THE ONLY WAY SOME MINIMAL SAFETY CAN BE ASSURED. NOT SMOKE AND MIRRORS.

And before someone comes back and says you cannot stop every threat..... I know that!

Okay - there has to be some line to the level of security that goes for airport employees. If done correctly, you would not believe the time and research that goes into "clearing" a person to work at the airport. Each airline and/or vendor has to drug test, fingerprint (both w/the USPS and FBI), 10 year background check (includes calling and verifying employment), 10 year address check, driver's license check, and about 900 other pages of documentation. Then, IF the airline hires you after all of that...you go through the airport's security clearance on top of that. And now we should screen these people on their way to work? So, who screens the employees? And who screens the screeners? Who makes sure the airport police officers are good guys vs. bad guys? There comes a point when we're running in circles and focusing our energy on the wrong people. And yes...I also know that you cannot stop every threat, but how many times have you heard about aircraft being hijacked and crashed by airline employees? Amazingly enough, as stressful as things seem to be for those people, I've never heard of an airline employee going "postal".

Egypt Air Oct 1999, the releif pilot took all with him in an apperant suicide.

If you're not going to screen the ground crew, why bother to screen anyone? That seems like a huge hole in security to me.

Sure they do some background checks, but that's not nearly foolproof.

d

Nothing's foolproof, sweetie.

But perhaps I should rephrase my first question - how many United States airline employees have you heard of going "postal"???

And no one has yet thought of a system to put into place regarding screening the screeners...and who is good enough, has high enough security level to be "the one" to open the screening checkpoint and the airport in the mornings? I don't know how it works exactly, but I know that Federal law enforcement carrying a weapon with paperwork does not have to be screened. Loophole? I'm willing to put my faith into his hiring agency and feel quite secure that he is no threat to my flight.

I have a lot more faith in a law enforcement professional carrying proper documentation than a guy claiming to be a mechanic or baggage handler. I'd be willing to bet that I'm not the only one.

d