New FAA measures likely to fail as well

Steve Schear schear at lvcm.com
Wed Sep 12 19:24:51 PDT 2001


[My wife worked for one of the major airlines for several years.  The 
following is from conversations we had regarding airport security.]

Knives
The knife ban won't work against anyone with even a smidgen of metal 
detector knowledge.  Anyone can purchase a razor sharp ceramic knife like 
this one 
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:Rd6ExOvaDz8:www.smarthome.com/9126.html+ceramic+knife&hl=en 
Without millimeter wave body scanners enforcing this one will be 
difficult.  Even advanced scanners may not detect objects secreted between 
butt cheeks or on the inside of thighs (especially if legs are fat or held 
together closely.)

Guns
Airline personnel will allow law enforcement agents, with proper forms, 
which are easily obtained, to board a flight with their 
firearms.  Available fake badges, laminators and photo quality printers on 
home PCs allow anyone with the interest, law LE demeanor and general 
appearance to pose as a Fed.  My wife raised concerns to her management 
that the gate people responsible for determining if a passenger claiming to 
be a LE agent was in fact an agent had no training to determine the 
authenticity of their credential. (Her supervisors listened, smiled and did 
nothing.) An FBI agent explained to her what she should look for in 
examining a bona fide FBI ID, but there are too many agencies accorded this 
privilege to make any simple training possible.  A centralized data base, 
with authentication capability by gate agents, of LE personnel allowed to 
carry firearms aboard U.S. domestic routes is needed.

Crew IDs
Both uniforms and IDs have been forged in the past and in at least one case 
used for a hijacking.  Authentication can and should be improved.

Expectations
The people entrusted with  maintaining a safe air travel environment are 
minimum or low wage people with little training.  Israel airline and 
security personnel are much better paid and well trained (days or weeks vs. 
hours in the U.S.)  Isn't our safety worth more than minimum wage?

steve





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