JFK Airport Security Report; Terrorism

EmergencyNet News Service
9/15/96 12:14CDT

EARLY WARNING: JFK AN EASY MARK FOR TERRORISTS
By Jim Fay, ENN NYC-NJ Metro Correspondent

NEW YORK CITY (ENN) - The Sunday New York Times continuing it's coverage of airport security, cites confidential internal reports by the management of John F. Kennedy International Airport which calls the facility suseptable to, "...fanatics and suicide missions."

The Port Authority is a bi-state agency that owns and operates the three NY-area airports, and also the World Trade Center, the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, as well as all the bridges and tunnels between NY and NJ.

One report obtained by the Times is written by an unidentified Port Authority Police Inspector who summarized a report done by an unnamed security consultant. However, according to ENN sources, the report was a duplication of an earlier report done by the same inspector heading up a committee of P.A. Police officers, detectives and superior officers who found the same, if not more, deficiencies in the security. The Port Authority management rejected the initial police report because, according to insiders, they felt that the police were "padding their own nest..." by overemphasizing security problems which would have resulted in the need of more police, more training and more overtime.

The P.A. then sought out an outside security firm, believed to be one headed by a former NYPD official, to do the security evaluation again. The security firm's results were detailed in a report by the police inspector, which stated, according to the quotes from The Times, "JFK Airport is subject to fanatics and suicide missions intending to blow up American aircraft."

The Port Authority rejected the recommendations of the security report regarding the establishing of both a P.A. Police Bomb Squad and SWAT team, stating that the NYPD, the New Jersey State Police, and the Newark (NJ) Police Department would handle any and all situations of that nature. But what was not taken into consideration was, in the case of the NYPD Bomb Squad, the amount of time it would take for that unit to get to JFK from their headquarters in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, or what would happen if two terrorist incidents happened at JFK and LaGuardia Airport simultaneously. Both JFK and LaGuardia are covered by the same NYPD Emergency Service (or SWAT) units.

The reports did not only cover the airports, but also the World Trade Center, and the bridges, tunnels and railroad operated by the P.A. The earlier reports cited severe security problems at the Trade Center, including whether having a public underground parking facility in such a high-profile building was a good idea. In 1993, terrorists entered the parking area with a truck loaded with high explosives which caused six deaths and extreme damage.

The Times article goes on to report that still other reports were done by the P.A., in 1986, 87, 91, and 93. Many of the recommendations were rejected out of hand by the agency, and ultimately only about 50% of them were implemented. However, the Times quotes one present P.A. manager who stated that none of the recommendations were rejected because of cost.

The 1987 report also faulted the airline security screening for accessing high-security areas, as well as the P.A. failure to do more to secure the ramp, or tarmac, areas. The Times article also quotes a retired civilian manager of JFK, who, up to his retirement in 1995, felt that the P.A. was still only reacting to potential hijacking of airplanes, and that no one in the P.A. thought that "other kinds of threats (i.e. bombings) were likely..."

Although recent aircraft incidents out of JFK shows that security should be a top priority, within days of the TWA Flight 800, French radio news reporters accessed high-security areas at JFK, and, most recently, a local New Jersey newspaper reporter stood by a jet aircraft on the tarmac at Newark International Airport, and was unchallenged by airport security.

Return to the Police Operations Page