Airlines lax in FAA security rules: USA Today 7/31/00

Airlines lax in asking about bags

FAA security rule isn't always followed to the letter

By Gary Stoller

USA TODAY

7/31/00

Airlines failed to properly perform a basic security procedure during a USA TODAY test at four airports.

In Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, USA TODAY reporters listened as ticket agents, gate agents and skycaps of 18 U.S. airlines asked travelers baggage-security questions. The Federal Aviation Administration requires that two questions be asked of domestic passengers.

Fifteen times, however, no questions were asked, and nine times only one question was asked during 125 passenger interviews monitored by USA TODAY.

Former FAA security director Billie Vincent, who reviewed notes of all the interviews, says only two of 125 complied with federal requirements.

The FAA's requirement states: ''To make sure dangerous items aren't brought onboard U.S. aircraft by unwitting passengers, the FAA requires the airlines to ask everyone the same questions: Has anyone unknown to you asked you to carry an item on this flight? Have any of the items you are traveling with been out of your immediate control since the time you packed them?''

FAA officials say some variations are permissible, but they declined to review any of the interviews. Vincent says in his judgment, both questions were asked improperly by nearly 30% of the airline employees, and nearly all improperly asked the second question.

Dick Doubrava, managing director of security for the Air Transport Association, which represents U.S. airlines, says he can't comment on the interviews. But ''the FAA is constantly monitoring and testing air carriers,'' he says, ''and no indication has been given to us that there has been a widespread failure to ask the proper security questions.'' The baggage questions, Doubrava says, are just a part of security. Other safeguards include computer profiling of passengers and weapons detectors.

In interviews that USA TODAY monitored, airline employees were often inconsistent:

* At Boston's Logan International Airport, a ticket agent asked one traveler one question and another, none.

* A passenger checking in at Chicago's Midway Airport was talking on a cellphone and was asked no baggage questions by a gate agent. When a USA TODAY reporter asked why, the agent said: ''I know that guy.''

* An airline agent handling a group of at least 10 teenagers at La Guardia Airport called out: ''Did anyone unknowingly give you anything to carry onboard?'' Several teens shook their heads ''no,'' but others didn't respond, and no other questions were asked.

Employees need more security training, Vincent says. Bruce Butterworth, the FAA's director of civil aviation security operations, says airlines are generally doing a good job. ''These questions are being asked, by and large, in the right way,'' he says.