WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers are warning that the Transportation Security Administration is leaving airplanes vulnerable to sabotage by terrorists who may have access to the planes in repair shops overseas.
TSA chief Kip Hawley faces questions today on the agency's failure to write security regulations for repair shops as Congress ordered nearly four years ago. Hawley will testify before House and Senate panels looking broadly at aviation security.
"This is an extreme vulnerability," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. A classified Transportation Department report found that a senior technician at a shop in Singapore worked for al-Qaeda and in late 2001 photographed U.S. aircraft as potential targets, McCaskill said. No additional information was made public.
The worry is that a terrorist could plant a bomb in an airplane and later detonate it while passengers are on board, said aviation-security consultant Douglas Laird, former security chief at Northwest Airlines. "They could take door panels off and pack explosives in there, and nobody would know," he said.
Airlines send planes to shops overseas and in the USA for work ranging from cleaning seats and changing tires to overhauling engines. Some repair shops are inside airport boundaries and well-secured but others are in industrial areas with less security. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certifies most shops, which operate independently of airlines.
Some repair facilities are operated by large manufacturers such as Pratt & Whitney and Boeing. Others are small businesses in countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.
TSA spokesman Christopher White said, "We don't consider foreign repair stations a serious concern for passengers." Airplanes returning from shops are inspected by airlines, and crews check the planes before, during and after each flight.
As airlines increasingly rely on shops and close their own repair facilities, lawmakers are concerned that repairs are not monitored by federal regulators. The FAA licenses 4,227 repair shops in the USA and 694 overseas to work on planes operated by U.S. carriers.
The Republican-led Congress ordered the TSA in late 2003 to write security rules for the shops by August 2004. The agency was to inspect the overseas shops by February 2006 and order problems corrected.
But the TSA has not issued regulations, drawing rebuke from lawmakers. "This is a problem, and we need a plan to deal with it," said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. "We don't know who the people are working at these repair stations."
White said the TSA has focused more on preventing terrorists from carrying bombs on board airplanes.
Congress intensified pressure on the TSA in August when it said no new overseas repair shops could be licensed to work on U.S. planes if the inspections are not completed by February 2009.
Barring new overseas shops would make it harder and costlier for airlines to get repairs done, said Michael Romanowski, a vice president at the Aerospace Industries Association.
