WashingtonWire - 2004-09-20

FAA: U.S. Airport Runway Safety On The Rise

Near collisions on airport runways in 2003 declined for a second consecutive year because pilots are better trained and are using better technology, the Federal Aviation Administration said. FAA said 324 runway "incursions" were reported last year, of which 32 were characterized as "high risk." None involved large commercial jets.

"American runways are the safest the world has to offer," said FAA Administrator Marion Blakey. "Pilot awareness programs and new technology continue to pay real safety dividends on the nation's runways."

Overall, runway incursions—when an aircraft, vehicle, person or object on the ground creates a collision hazard or is too close to an aircraft taking off, intending to take off, landing or intending to land—are down 20 percent over four years, FAA said. Serious incidents have declined 50 percent since 2000.

Incidents are down in part because of new FAA technology called Airport Movement Area Safety System, now in place at 34 airports. A second technology, the new Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X, was deployed to another 25 airports.

TSA To Pay $1.5 Million For Lost, Damaged, Pilfered Bags

Some 15,000 airline passengers whose bags were lost, stole, or damaged after being inspected by the Transportation Security Administration during the past 18 months will receive about $1.5 million in compensation from the government. TSA said it will pay an average of $110 each to travelers who filed claims.

The government and airlines, which maintained an exclusive chain of custody of luggage before the government took over screening after the Sept. 1, 2001 hijackings, are at an impasse over who is responsible. Airlines blame screeners for pilfered bags. The government blames baggage handlers employed by the airlines.

TSA decided to settle claims in the absence of an agreement with the airlines, spokesman Mark Hatfield said. Thirty-eight percent of claimants will be paid in full, the agency said. It will pay half the claim in 33 percent of cases and less than half in 12 percent of cases. Seventeen percent of claims will be denied because they involved missing items that were prohibited, including hazardous materials. Claims for damaged locks and damage to film caused by X-rays also will be denied.

Dubious Air Marshal Applicants Pass Background Checks

The Transportation Security Administration after the 2001 attacks cleared too many federal air marshal applicants who had criminal records for offenses such as domestic abuse, drunken driving or sexual harassment, a government investigation found. Other candidates nearly hired had questionable security backgrounds, including histories of financial troubles or discipline problems while employed at other federal agencies. None of the dubious candidates were hired, however.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General said in a report issued last month that TSA missed these red flags in 161 of 504 cases in which candidates had cleared background checks pending offers of employment. This included 46 applicants who had filed for bankruptcy in the prior seven years, seven who misused a credit card while employed by another government agency and 62 who were arrested for various offenses. Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin found the agency's standards for vetting air marshals to be "too lenient."

"Our evaluation identified two concerns regarding background investigations: Suitability standards are too lenient and adjudications are made without issuing warnings to people with questionable security backgrounds; and background investigators failed to identify past employee misconduct," Ervin said in his report. "The 161 cases contained financial, employment and criminal concerns."

The air marshal program, created in 1961 to combat a slew of hijackings to Cuba, was transferred among federal agencies three times since it was ramped up after the 2001 attacks. It is now part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency within DHS.

Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security, said his office disagreed that hiring standards were too lenient based on the 161 cases cited by Ervin because the cases had been reviewed by an independent adjudicator. Of those, 159 were adjudicated favorably "both in terms of suitability and the granting of top secret clearances, which was consistent with the initial adjudications," BTS said in its response.