WashingtonWire - 2005-08-15

Sioux Falls Privatizes Airport Screeners
Sioux Falls, S.D., Regional Airport will become the first U.S. airport to switch back to privately employed passenger and baggage screeners this autumn, nearly four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks prompted the federal government to take over airport security nationwide. The move, approved July 27 by the Transportation Security Administration, is the first official and permanent switch after privately employed screeners were tested during a pilot program at five other airports to see how they compared with a federal workforce. Sioux Falls applied under TSA's Screening Partnership Program, which qualifies 34 private companies to provide services that have been performed by federal employees since February 2002. "TSA is ready, willing and able to work with any airport that makes the local decision to apply for the program," said Kenneth Kasprisin, acting assistant secretary of homeland security for TSA. The Government Accountability Office concluded screeners employed by private companies performed about the same as federal workers. Qualified companies only may hire employees who meet the same standards as federal employees, including U.S. citizenship, a minimum high school diploma or equivalent, and English proficiency. All screeners, including those employed by private vendors, also must pass a 10-year Federal Bureau of Investigation background check, undergo 40 hours of classroom training and 60 hours of on-the-job training. Sioux Falls and Elko, Nev., Regional Airport joined the five airports in the pilot program in making the first applications for the permanent privatization program. The five airports participating in the pilot program are in San Francisco; Kansas City, Mo.; Rochester, N.Y.; Tupelo, Miss.; and Jackson, Wyo.

TSA Rolls Out Explosive Detection Portals
The Transportation Security Administration last month rolled out new and expensive explosive detection portals at airports in Dallas/Fort Worth and Palm Beach, Fla., part of an urgent push to bring the devices online at airports around the country. "This further enhances our explosives detection capabilities," said David Beecroft, TSA's acting federal security director at Palm Beach International. The portals, which cost more than $160,000 per machine, evaluate passengers selected for additional screening. They stand still until a burst of air is released, prompting analysis of microscopic particles that reveal whether the passenger has been in recent contact with explosive materials. TSA already has deployed the trace portals at airports in Baltimore; Boston; Gulfport, Miss.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; Newark; New York JFK; Phoenix; Providence, R.I.; Rochester, N.Y.; San Francisco; San Diego; and Tampa, Fla. By the end of September, TSA hopes to have the equipment installed at a half-dozen airports, including New York's LaGuardia and both Washington's Reagan National and Dulles airports. The agency expects to deploy more than 100 of the machines at the nation's largest airports by January 2006. TSA also graduated 10 new teams of agents and bomb-sniffing dogs, which will be assigned to airports in Washington, San Francisco, Miami, Boston, Nashville, Cincinnati, El Paso, Indianapolis, and Tampa, Fla.

Mead: FAA Drags Feet on Maintenance Inspections
The Federal Aviation Administration is moving too slowly to ensure aircraft maintenance performed by airline contractors is satisfactory, a government inspector said. Kenneth Mead, the Department of Transportation's Inspector General, said in an Aug. 1 letter that the FAA completed only one of nine steps it planned to take to improve supervision of safety checks performed by companies hired by airlines as a cost-saving measure.

"We are concerned with the planned timetable," Mead said in a letter to Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), who asked Mead for an update to his recommendations, first made to FAA in July 2003.

Major U.S. airlines now contract out 53 percent of their maintenance work, up from 37 percent in 1996, Mead said. Airlines also increased the frequency of flights during this time while cutting jobs in an effort to stave off losses, which peaked after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and continues to plague carriers as oil tops $60 a barrel. An FAA spokesman said the agency won't finish taking the nine steps to improve supervision of outsourced airline maintenance until next year. Some of those actions include the collection of more data on what maintenance is performed, a new system to prioritize inspections based on risk, and more examinations of the way contractors are managed. The agency also is rewriting inspection handbooks and developing 14 steps inspectors must complete during an examination.