An air 'disaster'; Lawmakers rip TSA chief for lack of oversight on overseas repair stations

Oct. 17, 2007
Seen as easy targets for potential terrorists

WASHINGTON - An al-Qaida member used his job in a Singapore aircraft repair station to photograph American planes as potential terror targets, but almost six years later, the U.S. government doesn't require background checks or other security measures for such shops, lawmakers complained yesterday.

"With all the effort we're taking checking everyone's suitcases, and wanding everyone's knee replacements, we potentially have terrorists working under the hoods of airplanes that we fly every day," said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). "It makes no sense."

She noted that U.S.-certified aircraft repair stations operate in five countries designated as terrorist safe havens by the State Department, but even those are not required to do background checks on employees.

"And by the way, all these airplanes have the right to leave these foreign repair stations ... and go directly to an airport and pick up passengers," McCaskill said. "I just think it is a disaster waiting to happen."

Appearing before the Senate committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley said he planned to promulgate security rules for repair stations in the next few months, with audits beginning six months later. He offered no explanation for why the TSA had not fulfilled the congressional mandate to implement the regulations three years ago.

"As far as current vulnerabilities, that is something we look at in foreign countries. As you know, there are layers in place, so it is not completely uncovered."

Trade groups representing aerospace contractors said they believe security concerns about aircraft repair stations are overblown. "We believe the vast majority of repair work that's done in stations overseas aren't at issue," said Michael Romanowski, vice president at the Aerospace Industries Association. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to spend time and resources being concerned about the security threat dealing with components that don't have a probability of resulting in loss of an aircraft."

But a 2003 report from the inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department was less sanguine. Noting airlines' growing outsourcing of maintenance, the report warned that terrorists might seek to plant a potential saboteur in a repair station, and urged the TSA to develop security protocols to guard against that.

It said that in December 2001, an al-Qaida operative worked as a senior aircraft technician at a Singapore station and was seen photographing U.S. aircraft. It's unclear what action was taken against him.

"Closing the security gap at these facilities is imperative," the report noted, "because foreign repair stations perform overhauls and repairs on engines and air frames for the major air carriers."