WashingtonWire - 2003-11-10

TSA Steps Up Efforts To Monitor, Train Screeners

The Transportation Security Administration's chief and deputy administrators in the past month testified separately before both houses of Congress regarding the agency's stepped up efforts to monitor federal airport screeners' performance and train them while on the job.

"Through covert testing, we challenge screeners to detect threat objects at screening checkpoints and in checked baggage, using simulated terrorist threat devices and current techniques. The covert tests serve as one of many indicators of screener performance," Deputy TSA Administrator Stephen McHale told members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation last Wednesday using the exact same words TSA Administrator James Loy uttered three weeks earlier before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on aviation.

Loy testified that TSA also is replacing roughly 1,800 conventional X-ray machines at airports with a system that superimposes fake threat images on X-ray screens during actual operations and records whether screeners identify the objects. "By frequently exposing screeners to images of a variety of dangerous objects, the system provides continuous on-the-job training and immediate feedback and remediation and allows supervisors to monitor screener performance," Loy said. TSA did not return calls as to whether this on-the-job training is subjecting travelers to additional screening (since a superimposed image of a weapon can appear to be in their carry-on baggage), or if such training is causing further delays and longer lines at security checkpoints.

Despite the additional training and covert monitoring, TSA critics in recent months have argued that the back door to the airport still is vulnerable. Last month, box cutters and items used to simulate explosives were found in Southwest Airlines and US Airways planes, taunting authorities about the limited airport security. According to a congressional investigation whose conclusions were released in September, significant concerns regarding screener performance continue to exist nearly two years after passage of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. The investigation conducted by the General Accounting Office's Office of Special Investigations, as well as operational testing conducted by TSA's Office of Internal Affairs and Program Review, found that TSA had no effective way to measure the performance of nearly 50,000 passenger and bag screeners. "I feel confident in assuring you and the American people that the civil aviation sector is more secure today than it has ever been, but I am mindful that as a young organization there is much yet to be done, as we mature our many-layered 'system of systems,' " Loy said in his testimony. "Even optimum human performance alone cannot get the job done completely. We have also greatly improved the technology used at screening checkpoints and have improved our capability to detect weapons, explosives and other prohibited items."



FAA Rule To Increase Route Capacity

The Federal Aviation Administration last month issued a new rule that is expected to increase significantly the routes available to airlines at high altitudes, enabling more efficient routings that will save time and fuel. The "reduced vertical separation minimum" rule, which will become effective Jan. 20, 2005, will increase capacity and operating efficiency by reducing the minimum vertical separation between aircraft from the current 2,000 feet to 1,000 feet for all aircraft flying between 29,000 and 41,000 feet. "This rule offers a combination of greater aviation safety, capacity and cost efficiency," said FAA Administrator Marion Blakey. "RVSM positions the country's high-altitude airspace to meet future demand."

RVSM already is in effect in Europe and Australia and over most of the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Canada, in which RVSM is in place north of 57 degrees latitude, plans to implement the rule in its southern airspace at the same time the United States does so in 2005, along with U.S. Caribbean and South American countries.

The benefits from RVSM go beyond just time and fuel efficiency, according to FAA. "RVSM offers greater flexibility for air traffic controllers and reduces their workload. This flexibility is particularly useful when controllers have to reroute flights around bad weather. More available routes and altitudes mean greater separation between aircraft, and controllers will have more options to separate aircraft on intersecting routes."

FAA is waiting until January 2005 to give airlines and other aircraft operators time to install the more accurate altimeters and autopilot systems needed for this system. According to the agency, "The estimated fuel savings of $5.3 billion through 2016 far exceed the estimated cost of over $800 million to modify aircraft to meet RVSM standards."