Excerpted from EmergencyNet News Daily Reports - 07/29/96
ENN 7/28/96 14:16EDT
F.A.A. DOWNPLAYS FORMER I.G.'s REPORT ON AIRPORT
SECURITY FLAWS; REPORT SUPRESSED??
By Jim Fay NYC/NJ Metro Correspondent
NEW YORK CITY (ENN) - The FAA, and it's parent agency, the U.S. Department of Transportation, attempted
to keep from public scrutiny a report prepared by the department's Inspector General which showed that the security
screenings at a number of airports in the United States were flawed and resulted in agents accessing planes with
phoney bombs.
In the Saturday, July 27th, issue of the New York Times, reporter Pam Belluck outlines how, according to the
report, undercover agents of the Inspector General's Office of the Department of Transportation, conducted the
investigation of four airports in the U.S. this year. These same four airports were investigated by the I.G. in 1993 and
all four had lapses of security then. In the 1993 investigation, agents were able to pass the screening points at all four
airports, and in 75 percent of the attempts, were able to actually board planes with the "bombs" in their carry-on
luggage, as well as accessing ramp-side areas, where the planes are parked.
According to the Times story, the follow-up investigation in 1996 still showed that agents had accesses to "sterile
areas" (those areas beyond the terminal screening points where X-ray machines are), 40 percent of the time. While
this was somewhat of an improvement, the Transportation Department apparently still felt uncomfortable with the
potential of four out of every ten passengers carrying contraband.
The report was prepared by Inspector General Mary Schiavo, who was an outspoken critic of FAA procedures
during recent Congressional hearings after the fatal ValueJet crash in Florida. Schiavo recently resigned her position
as I.G. in order to write a book of her experiences and lecture.
When Schiavo sent the critical 1996 report to agency bosses, they decided that it would not be released
immediately, fearing it would compromise "national security," and that releasing the report at that time would possibly
encourage a terroristic attempt at the weak points during the then-upcoming Olympic festivities in Atlanta. The Times
quoted Schiavo for this article, and she stated that she did not agree with this situation of withholding the report,
fearing that any attempt on an airport would look significantly bad if anything was to happened with the report
unreleased.
The Times story then goes on to report that the I.G. and the agencies came up with a compromise, and that the
unedited report would be released only to Congress and to Transportation and FAA officials, and that an edited
version would be made public only through Freedom of Information Act requests. It was felt that by the time that
reporters requesting the report through the Freedom of Information Act received and published the report, the
Olympic Games would be over.
Ms. Schiavo quit on July 8th. The next day, the Deputy Inspector General, Mario Lauro, sent a memo to
Department of Transportation Secretary Fedrico Pena, stating that the report would not be released at all for security
reasons. When questioned by the Times, a Department of Transportation spokesman stated that the issue to release
the report was only finalized on the day after Ms. Schiavo left office.
Schiavo's predictions may have come to fruition as a result of the fatal TWA Flight 800 that was downed over the
Atlantic Ocean after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport last week. Agencies handling the investigation in
New York are seriously looking at the possibility of an explosive device was taken or placed on board the 747,
possibly at JFK. Official have also not ruled out a possible missile attack on the plane, and the outside chance of
mechanical failure of one or more components of the plane. Security at Kennedy has also been questioned since the
fatal Flight 800 as a result of two members of the French media documenting their accesses to the sterile area
without being stopped or challenged by airline security personnel.
(C) EmergencyNet News Service, 1996, All rights Reserved. Contact ENN For Redistribution Rights.