Flying in TSA's Hands

USA Today reports there were 349 cases of unruly airline passengers last year, the second highest total in the past 10 years after 2004, when there were 482 cases. Nobody is sure why such incidents have doubled since the mid-1990s. One theory is that catching a plane has become a much bigger hassle since airport security was stepped up following 9/11. Maybe some passengers are pushed over the edge by the extra aggravation of standing in endless lines, taking off shoes, turning out pockets, walking through scanners and struggling to recover possessions on the other side of the security barriers now set up at the nation's more than 400 commercial airports. It would be nice to look forward to a less stressful airport experience. But don't hold your breath.

The Wall Street Journal reports that research officials at the federal Transportation Security Agency foresee a day when sensors embedded in walls and floor of airports will replace today's airport-clogging security checkpoints. But, it adds, that day is probably 20 years off. A recent audit by the Inspector General of the Homeland Security Department, the parent agency of TSA, suggests that even that estimate may be optimistic. The audit looked into a $1 billion contract let by TSA in 2002 to provide airport security personnel with up-to-date communications and Internet connections by December 2002 to keep them posted on the latest threats and deal with crises. The Inspector General concluded that three years later TSA had spent over $800 million but had received little of what it paid the contractors to deliver and that the whole contract, deemed "critical to airport security," should be rebid, The Associated Press reports.

The contract called for delivery of dial-up connections, laptops and cell phones to TSA airport security teams by November 2002. These were not fully delivered until September 2004, according to the Inspector General. The next stage of the contract, have been completed by December 2002, has not yet been installed at all airports. It called for high-speed Internet connections, upgraded phone service, encrypted radios and something called the Electronic Surveillance System, plus software for managing screeners' schedules.

Federal officials heading airport security at a number of airports complained that the contractor supplied antiquated equipment and that their radios didn't always communicate within terminals, according to the AP. The

audit accused TSA of failing to manage the high priority contract effectively.

TSA has agreed to rebid the contract and says it has strengthened its procurement oversight. Meanwhile other evidence is accumulating that TSA's elaborate screening precautions still leave gaping holes in airport and airline security. An official of the Government Accountability Office told the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday she could not confirm an NBC report that GAO investigators testing airport security had smuggled bomb-making equipment and explosive past federal screeners at 21 airports. But TSA Director Kip Hawley has acknowledged that additional levels of security must be built into the nation's "overly rigid, static and predictable airline passenger system "that "terrorists can ... easily 'engineer around,' " Government Executive Magazine reported.

The flying public is in TSA's hands. In exchange for putting up with the inconveniences of flying in the post-9/11 age, it has a right

to demand better security and better management than it has gotten so far from this

federal agency.

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.