Excerpted from EmergencyNet NEWS Service Daily Report
Thursday, August 1, 1996
Vol. 2 - 214

QUESTIONS ARISE ABOUT AIRPORT CARGO SECURITY
By Steve Macko, ENN Editor

Investigators from the National Transporation Safety Board and the Federal Bureau of Investigation continue to search for evidence to prove their suspicions -- that TWA Flight 800 was blown out of the sky by a bomb.
The most popular theory continues to be that the Boeing 747 was destroyed by a bomb in the front cargo hold. All of the cargo records for Flight 800 have been turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration and, of course, investigators are checking out leads obtained from the records.

The similarities to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, are eerie. The front nose section, containing the cockpit and part of the first-class section are known to have separated from the rest of the airliner by a catastrophic event.

The responsibility for the security of cargo placed on flights falls upon the airlines. The responsibility is supposed to be the same as the airlines inspecting the bags of passengers. But, in reality, airlines actually rely upon shipping companies to vouch for the contents contained in the shipments. It appears, however, that, in turn, the shipping companies themselves rely upon the honesty of their frequent customers.

Representing the freight companies, known as air forwarders, is the Air Forwarders Association. Its executive director, Jim Foster, said, "It would be extremely difficult to inspect every package of every shipment manually. That means opening the shipment and comparing the contents to the packing list. It would not be something that people would be willing to pay for."

In 1989, a presidential commission said that the casual oversight of cargo on passenger planes has been a concern for a number of years. The commission called the problem "a huge gap in the security umbrella."

In response to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, Congress in 1990 passed a law that was supposed to increase the standards of cargo security. But just recently, the General Accounting Office said that the enforcement of the new rules for mail and other cargo should be improved by the FAA.

As far as it is known, the FAA has taken no action. The fact is, say many experts, thorough scrutiny of all air cargo is impossible. Given as an example is just New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport -- in 1994, 1.4 million tons worth $86 billion was shipped out of that airport on cargo and passenger planes. That's just one major airport.

Charlie LeBlanc, the operations manager of a Houston consulting firm, Air Security International, is also the former manager of cargo security with Continental Airlines. He said of airline cargo security today, "I think it's a huge loophole." LeBlanc explained that commerical cargo on a Boeing 747 is usually placed in the front cargo hold. Passenger luggage is placed in the rear hold.

Explaining how commercial shipments are handled by the air forwarders, Leblanc said, "If somebody walks up to an airline cargo desk and says I want to ship this box to London, they will be questioned and their package would be opened and inspected and possibly held fro 48 hours. If I'm somebody that walks up and says, 'I'm with XYZ Company,' and that company has shipped with them in the past, those checks and balances would not take place nine times out of ten."

Even if a possible terrorist wanted to go about his plot of placing a bomb inside a legitimate package, it would not be difficult. All he would have to do is establish credibility with a known shipper for a few months.

Ken Jones is the director of operations with Air Cargo, Inc. A large, well-known company that handles ground shipping for airlines. Jones said, "It's a pretty touchy situation to deal with, but everybody is mindful of the need for increased security. The question is, 'How do we go about doing something without economically crippling the industry?'"

As of right now, security for the nation's 1,200 to 1,500 air forwarders takes a two-prong approach. The FAA requires all of the freight shipping companies to submit a security plan. They are to certify that their employees have undergone criminal background checks. The FAA then provides the airlines with a list of approved air shipping companies.

It is unfortunate, but there would appear to be a number of ways that this security system can be defeated. We will not even touch upon the U.S. Postal Service, here.

ENN has been looking to see what the impact would be if U.S. airlines were to adopt the security approach of Israel's El Al Airlines. El Al's security program is acknowledged as the best in the world. But U.S. airline industry insiders say that El Al can accomplish their plan because they are, by American standards, a small airline. While security at U.S. airlines certainly can be improved, it appears that they may be unable to duplicate the same level of safeguards as the renowned Israeli airline.

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