Report Uncovers Major Airline Security Gap

ABC7/KGO-TV

Report Uncovers Major Airline Security Gap
November 16, 2005

KGO - There is disturbing news coming out tonight about airline security, just as millions of Americans plan to fly home for the holidays. The Government Accountability Office says a long standing threat still has not been eliminated. A look at the latest on airline cargo screening.

This 90-page report is brand new, but the Government Accountability Office isn't breaking any new ground with this. We've known about the threat for years. What's new is we're finding out just how little has been done about it.

What is the point of going though all this kind of security screening every time you fly if cargo carriers as big a Volkswagen are getting put on the same plane, without any inspection at all.

Ron Wilson, ABC7 aviation consultant: "There is a gaping hole, I mean a gaping hole, in the security system at airports -- San Francisco included in the area of cargo."

ABC7 aviation consultant Ron Wilson says on average about half of the baggage compartment on a commercial airliner is filled with commercial cargo. Six billion pounds of merchandise per year, and nearly all of it goes on board unchecked for explosives.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California (Jan. 2003): "All you have to look at is the enormous theft in the air cargo industry to understand that there is a major security threat."

That was Senator Dianne Feinstein almost three years ago. Feinstein got a cargo security bill through the Senate, but it died in the House.

Shippers are concerned increased security would slow down shipments and cost a lot of money to implement. The GAO reports it will take four billion dollars and ten years to put proper screening in place.

Today, Senator Feinstein told me the solution rests with Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff.

Sen. Feinstein: "And being innovative, and coming up with a program, and there may have to be a fair share with a number of different sources sharing the cost, but so be it. It's something that simply has to be done."

The Transportation Security Administration says it's improving -- that it's tripled random inspections of cargo, it's hiring more inspectors and trying out new technologies.

The airlines argue there is no technology to rapidly and effectively screen cargo, and speed is essential in a business that depends on overnight deliveries. It's an admission that has airline pilots worried about just where we're putting our priorities.

Gary Boettcher, Airline Pilots Assoc.: "The risk isn't the grandmother or the aunt of the uncle or the mom and dad. The risk is the unscreened cargo."

Congress is still waiting for the Transportation Security Administration, the TSA, to present regulations to plug the holes in the air cargo security system. TSA promised to have the regulations last August.