Incident Reveals Jets from Foreign Airports at Risk

What could be dumber than the decision made by a 21-year-old Pennsylvania college student vacationing in South America to pack a partial stick of dynamite he allegedly bought as a souvenir in check-in luggage on a flight from Argentina to New Jersey by way of Houston?

The answer is the failure of federal officials to provide the funds, training and equipment to detect such potential hazards at the point of origination rather than after an aircraft lands in the United States.

Nearly five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and an attempt by terrorist Richard Reid to detonate explosive-laden shoes on a flight from Britain to America, the latest incident reveals that inbound overseas flights remain a threat to domestic security.

After a search of luggage using bomb-sniffing dogs at Bush Intercontinental Airport last Friday located the dynamite and unspecified contraband items, Howard MacFarland Fish told officers he had purchased the explosive fragment at a Bolivian mine as a keepsake and did not intend anyone any harm. His father told The Associated Press, "What a stupid, stupid thing to do in today's world."

The Houston incident was one of six scares the same day that caused flights around the county to be delayed or diverted. Another Continental flight was forced to land in El Paso for a search after crewmembers found a missing panel in a restroom. A utility knife found in the passenger cabin of a jet at a Connecticut airport prompted another delay.

The current aviation anxiety follows the foiling of a British-based terrorist plot to set off explosives contained in liquids packed in carry-on luggage. That led to new restrictions on items that can be taken aboard aircraft.

At least Fish can claim youth and inexperience for a blunder that could result in a criminal conviction and jail time or fines. That's not the case with officials of the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, who for years have failed to act on recommendations to enforce measures to detect explosives on foreign flights destined for the United States before they take off.

Former TSA science adviser Anthony Fainberg told the Chronicle he blamed complacent government officials for failing to act to equip overseas airports with explosives detectors. "The only reason I can suppose for not having done this is laziness on the part of bureaucrats," he said.

Fainberg estimates it would cost approximately $30 million to provide foreign airports that originate flights to the United States with adequate security to screen luggage and travelers for explosives. "I took this to TSA leadership and no one told me it was a bad idea, but it was not done."

That money is a tiny expenditure compared to the billions of dollars appropriated for Homeland Security measures over the past five years.

Yet a task as basic as securing aircraft loaded with passengers and headed into U.S. population centers has been ignored even as repeated incidents have indicated the potential for calamity.

If Fish had been a trained terrorist rather than a Lafayette College kid with a common-sense deficit, the result could have been hundreds of fatalities rather than an embarrassing breach of airport security.

The time to make sure an aircraft is safe is before it takes off, not after it has landed in the United States. Federal officials should act immediately to patch this glaring security hole.

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.