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from Boston globe FAA lags on bomb detection By Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff, 9/28/2001 When President Bush unveiled new aviation security measures yesterday, he did not mention one that many specialists believe is paramount in protecting passengers and flight crews from terrorist attacks: screening checked luggage for bombs. Despite $350 million already spent on advanced explosives detection equipment by the Federal Aviation Administration, the government itself has concluded that the program has been badly bungled. Indeed, 13 years after the terrorist destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, provided tragic impetus for government efforts to deploy such technology, only a small fraction of checked luggage is today scanned for bombs. To date, only 129 of the new bomb detection machines have been distributed among the nation's 420 airports, and 23 additional machines are sitting idle in an FAA warehouse, according to the agency. Some of the 23 machines, purchased recently from a newly contracted manufacturer, don't work properly. And more than half of those in operation are used only a fraction of the time, in part because airlines have resisted providing technicians to run them. Moreover, the FAA, after four years of trying, has yet to issue rules for how the machines should be operated. For security reasons the FAA will not disclose which of the nation's airports have the advanced machines - which use CAT-scan technology and cost about $1 million each. Logan International Airport has at least two, according to aviation sources. At almost all the nation's airports, efforts to screen checked baggage are spotty at best - with or without the advanced machines. On international flights, all checked baggage is matched with a passenger, so that no luggage goes on an airplane unless officials at the gate confirm that the owner of the bag has boarded the plane - a precaution that would be useless in detecting a suicide bomber. On domestic flights, only passengers identified as possibly suspicious by an FAA computerized screening program are matched with their baggage. The criteria for the program are classified. Although FAA officials would not say whether any additional measures are taken to examine checked bags, aviation security advocates and former government officials say that checked luggage on domestic flights generally passes into an airplane without being screened. ''At most airports in the country, checked bags go right on the airplanes,'' said Mary Schiavo, a former Transportation Department inspector general. Meanwhile, the scanning of all checked baggage for bombs remains a distant goal. Before the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the FAA was using a target date of 2007 to have all checked luggage belonging to passengers flagged by the computerized screening system scanned by the advanced machines. The target date to have the machines used for all luggage was 2015. But government transportation specialists, even before the recent terrorist attacks, said the screening of checked baggage requires far more urgency. In congressional testimony on Tuesday, Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth M. Mead's first recommendation for improving aviation security was to ''increase use of bulk explosives detection machines for screening of passengers' checked baggage.'' Mead's remarks echoed years of earlier testimony in which he and other officials have sharply criticized the FAA for failing to get airlines to make greater use of the bomb detection machines. Airlines are required to pay for operation and upkeep of the equipment. In his statement Tuesday, Mead asserted that ''the majority of the machines are still underutilized,'' and accused the FAA of failing to abide by a 2000 law that requires the agency set a minimum number of bags that must be scanned by advanced equipment. ''A bulk explosives detection machine in use has an immediate, powerful, and visible deterrent effect on potential terrorist attack,'' Mead said. ''One sitting idle does not.'' Yesterday, FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler acknowledged that 23 of the advanced explosives detection machines are stored in an agency warehouse. Eight of those machines do not work properly due to computer software flaws. In an April 2000 report to Congress, Mead's office said even machines in use were dramatically underutilized. More than 50 percent of those machines, an agency audit said, were screening fewer than 225 bags per day, while they are capable of scanning that many each hour. The office attributed the low utilization rate to the FAA's failure to develop certification guidelines for the companies contracted by the airlines to run the machines. Aviation security advocates say use of the machines is bound to remain low as long as the airlines are required to pay for operation and maintenance. ''The airlines delayed use of the machines in the early 1990s, saying they weren't fast enough,'' said Paul Hudson. Hudson is executive director of the watchdog group Aviation Consumer Action Project and father of one of the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. ''Now there's a new generation of new machines that are fast enough and they simply don't use them.'' Yesterday, Bush said he plans to work with Congress to put the federal government in charge of airport security and the screening of baggage through a combination of federal and private workers. Bush has also promised to spend $3 billion to improve aviation security - out of the $40 billion approved by Congress in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. But he gave no hint that any of that money would be used to speed up the purchase and deployment of additional advanced technology equipment to screen checked luggage. The FAA's Trexler said that, since 1997, the agency has been spending about $100 million a year to buy the advanced machines, as well as to purchase small explosives detection devices for carry-on baggage, and to replace all of the X-ray machines used at passenger check-in points. To date, the agency has purchased approximately 800 smaller ''explosives trace detectors.'' The swab-like detectors are passed over handbags, laptop computers, and other carry-on luggage and then deposited in a machine designed to analyze and detect even minute traces of explosives. Meanwhile, the program to replace all X-ray machines used to check carry-on bags - a three-year initiative expected to cost from $80 million to $120 million - is a money-saver for the airlines, which previously were required to buy the machines. The older X-ray machines are being replaced with new models equipped with a computer program that shows operators false images of guns, bombs, and other prohibited travel items. The purpose of the false images is to keep the operators alert and to rate their competence. The government decided to begin purchasing X-ray machines for the airlines, Trexler said, after a White House commission headed by then-Vice President Al Gore concluded in 1997 that civil aviation had become a matter of national security. Michael Rezendes can be reached via e-mail at <A HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]";>[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>. This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 9/28/2001. � <A HREF="http://www.boston.com/globe/search/copyright.htm";>Copyright</A> 2001 Globe Newspaper Company. "Never cease in the fight for peace, justice, and equality for all people. Be persistent in all that you do and don't allow anyone to sway you from your conscience.".....Leonard Peltier ============================================================ You have been selected to get a 1000 Free AwardMiles from Topica. The process takes less than 30 seconds... Click here and join Milesource for your Free AwardMiles! http://click.topica.com/caaadsvb1ddNBb2HgmNf/Milesource ============================================================ Visit and show your support for the Grass Roots Oyate http://members.tripod.com/GrassRootsOyate Clemency for Leonard Peltier. 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