AVIATION SAFETY CONSULTANT WARNED OF AIRPORT ATTACK

By

Ken Cubbin

JULY 2002 --

I could scream.

I had just finished penning the majority of this article when I heard the news about the attack in LAX on CNN. I feel totally frustrated because in the last couple of months I had warned the FBI and TSA of this probability. Note, I said probability and not possibility. I am sure there are other voices out there shouting the same warning as I, but none of us is being heard by authorities.

The sad truth is that if the attack had been at any other airlines ticket counter casualties would have almost certainly been much higher. This is the first of what could be far more serious attacks on airports and not one action is being taken to prevent the inevitable. Following are my thoughts and opinions.

Introduction

Before July 4^th, yet another warning for Americans to go about their normal lives was issued by government authorities through the media. Spokespersons said that the threat of future terrorist attacks is a very real possibility but implied that these may be thwarted if only Americans remain vigilant. Meanwhile the average citizen has developed a tolerance for heightened alerts. Its as if people dont really process the cautions as a real threat anymore. Just another bureaucratic rambling to be ignored something along the lines of buckle-up or dont drink and drive. If Im alert, nothing can happen to me, right?

Think again.

The illusion that airport security has improved dramatically has persuaded travelers to return to their pre-911 apathy. All but lost is the comrades-in-arms attitude that prevailed after the attacks. Passengers now exhibit old habits of burying their heads in magazines during flight attendant pre-departure briefings and avoiding speaking to other passengers. Vigilance and looking for possible terrorist threats? I dont think so. More like are we going to get out on time?, and wheres my extra pillow.

These attitudes prevail even though a recent article in the press revealed that airport security screeners failed a test of their ability to detect weapons and explosives in passengers luggage. In some cases, Cincinnati and Las Vegas, half of all items placed in luggage by testers went undetected. To make matters worse, these weapon-like articles were not even camouflaged; they were simply replica weapons and explosives placed in luggage. What should alarm passengers more is that in a prior test of this sort, where prohibited items were hidden in luggage, much higher non-detection rates occurred; in some cases as high as seventy percent.

So why are passengers feeling so secure these days?

Simply because there have been no other attacks on airlines or airports. They have a false sense of security. But, if Im correct in my assumptions, that is likely to change in the near future.

Security at airports is farcical. Because of politicians' reticence to adopt suitable profiling criteria, 12 year-old girls and old men in wheel chairs are being 'randomly' selected for last minute scrutiny before boarding their flight. Coupled with this insanity is the fact that security personnel at checkpoints go to fanatical efforts to make sure passengers do not carry even as much as a nail file on board. Meanwhile, as recent tests reveal, they have trouble identifying real threats. Apart from these problems, a terrorist could wrap himself in synthetic, explosive material and walk straight through metal detectors unchallenged -- as long as he made sure there were no metallic objects on his person that might initiate a body pat-down.

Profiling is a successful tactic used by El al in preventing terrorist attacks. It is a system that has proven sound and effective. But we here in America pretend that our core values prevent us from targeting one person over another. What nonsense.

Remember these words from the Declaration of Independence?

We are at war and our core values should be aimed at protecting the lives of our citizens. You cannot enjoy freedom and pursue happiness if you are dead.

If that means that certain people who fit the profile of a terrorist be singled out for further inspection, then thats a good thing. Valuable screeners time would be far more effective if it were utilized more efficiently. If some peoples sensitivities are compromised, too bad. Get over it.

I repeat, we are at war and these times demand extraordinary precautions.

In the months that followed the vicious and cowardly attacks on the U.S., passengers anger was palpable. Their readiness to assist in averting disaster was demonstrated several times. In one case, when an irate passenger tried to force his way into the cockpit on a flight, passengers helped flight attendants subdue the man. In another, passengers assisted a flight attendant in preventing Richard Reed from igniting explosives in his shoe. These heroic acts demonstrated passengers willingness to act.

But where was the vigilance asked for by politicians? How did these obviously disturbed passengers get so close to wreaking terror in the skies?

It wasnt a passenger but a flight attendant who noticed Mr. Reed trying to ignite his shoe. Sure passengers came to her assistance, but if they had spent more time being spatially aware of what was going on around them they might have been more attuned to what was about to happen.

After all, what if the flight attendant had not been passing by at that moment?

This has got to change. Passengers had better start taking responsibility for their own safety.

Despite pleas from industry pundits, airport managers and airline CEOs, the TSA is sticking to its mandate that all airline passenger checked baggage (annually about 1 billion bags) be checked for explosives by the end of this year.

This verges on insanity.

Not only is the time line prohibitive, but the actual technology that many airports are now in the process of installing has a 25% false detection rate. Each false detection must undergo rigorous visual inspection and trace detection by individual screeners. A process that takes at least 2 minutes per bag. This will further delay baggage screening and increase passenger waiting times a situation that will undoubtedly negatively impact already ailing airlines.

Gordon Bethune, CEO of Continental Airlines, probably summed it up the best. He is reported to have commented that Its not enough to have a system thats safe it needs to work. And hes right. The airlines are such an integral part of commerce that they absolutely must be allowed to operate unfettered. If ticket prices are forced higher and/or passenger handling delays drive more people away from flying, airlines will suffer irreparable damage and the multiplier effect will ripple through the economy. This year alone airlines will collectively lose approximately $6 billion. Some, such as US Airways and United Airlines are already financially strapped any further hardships could drive them, and others, into bankruptcy.

As an example of how costly the EDS fiasco will be for us for we ultimately foot the bill in way of higher ticket prices the installation of 137 machines in Bostons Logan International Airport is estimated to cost around $150 million. In Dallas Fort Worth Airport, this figure may go as high as $196 million. And these are just two of the nations largest airports. The U.S.A. has around 429 airports of which 32 are major. Fourteen of the worlds largest and busiest airports are in the U.S.A.

For EDS machines to work most efficiently, they either have to be placed alongside ticket counters, so bags can be screened at check in, or integrated into the conveyances that carry luggage to baggage distribution centers. Lack of space at airports makes the first option untenable. Tearing down existing baggage handling facilities to integrate EDS machines is a labor intensive, expensive and time consuming process. For example, installation of four similar machines in Geneva took 6 months to complete. Even if airports began this process today, they would be unable to meet the November 19, 2002 deadline as required by the TSA. So, in many cases EDS machines will be installed on a stand-alone basis. This means that bags will have to be brought to the machines, tested and then taken to the airplane. An inefficient process that will increase baggage handling time. In Boston, a completely new building is being constructed to house the machines.

If you wanted to gain access to a property protected by a guard dog, would you try when the dog is actively patrolling or wait until its resting? Similarly, would you try to breach the main gate or search for a spot in the perimeter that the dog was not watching so intently?

The answers to these questions seem obvious, do they not?

Then why are we spending so much time mending the gate after the horse has bolted rather than repairing the whole fence?

Terrorists wont bother trying another hijack because that is where we are now focusing all our energy. What they will be doing is looking at the whole airline infrastructure and working out the path of least resistance.

Airports are totally vulnerable and, in my professional opinion, will be the most probable targets for attack.

On May 30, 1972 terrorists sprayed waiting passengers with automatic gunfire at Israels Ben Gurion International Airport. Twenty-six people were killed and 76 seriously wounded.

Two years later, on August 6, 1974, 2 people died and 17 were seriously injured when a bomb exploded near the PanAm ticket counter in Terminal 2 at Los Angeles International Airport.

A hauntingly similar attack occurred nine years later. On December 27, 1985, four terrorists opened fire and threw hand grenades among passengers waiting at check-in counters at Romes Leonardo da Vinci Airport. Fourteen people died and 70 were wounded. On the very same day and this is particularly significant a synchronous attack was carried out by terrorists at Viennas Schwechat Airport. In this attack, 3 people were killed and another 47 injured.

Today, media reports are all too often filled with horror stories of suicide bombers walking in amongst innocent civilians and detonating bombs strapped to their bodies. In Israel, Pakistan and Europe, there have been recent terrorist attacks using another popular form of killing innocent people car bombs.

Airports in the U.S.A. are still completely vulnerable to these kinds of attacks, yet little is being done to protect passengers from terrorists who choose to go this route.

Immediately following the 911 attacks, it was decided to keep all cars away from airport arrival and departure areas. While this created havoc in the short term it certainly prevented terrorists from using car bombs. However, since airlines are such an integral part of the economy, it was imperative to get things back to normal as quickly as possible. Partly, restrictions on airport traffic had to be lifted in order to improve passenger flow, but also it was imperative to create the impression that security was now under control in order to attract passengers.

But nothing has really been done to prevent suicide bombers, shootings or car bomb attacks at airports.

For example, at LAX there is a lighted sign on the approach ramp to the departure level that warns Vehicles not occupied will be towed. Not only does this mean that there are not enough police preventing people from vacating cars, but when an empty car is found a tow truck will be called. This process would take at least 10 minutes. In other words, a terrorist could drive his bomb-filled car to the departure area in LAX, vacate it and detonate the explosives at his leisure.

Similarly, there are far too few police patrolling the ticket counters and/or baggage claim areas at airports. I conducted an experiment of my own. Having arrived at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX on a hotel courtesy bus, I walked into the departure level carrying two bags a roll-on and my flight bag. Since I was deadheading that day, I was in civilian clothes. While hundreds of people milled around the ticket counters, I laid my roll-on bag on the floor, in full sight of all those who chose to see, opened it and removed a book. Before I zipped up my suitcase, I looked around to see if anybody, anyone at all, was even remotely interested in my actions.

Nada not one person could care less.

Had I been retrieving an Uzi or a couple of hand grenades from my belongings, I could have fired at will and probably gotten away unscathed. Why? Because there were absolutely no airport police within sight.

Alternately, I could have walked among the throng of people and simply detonated explosives carried on my body.

On a recent interview for my book Survival Tactics for Airline Passengers the reporter asked, Do you think its wise to raise the issue of airport security? Wont this just give terrorists ideas?

Duh!

So lets not talk about where threats still exist and hope that terrorists, who, after all, noticed previous loopholes in security all by themselves, might not notice that airports are completely open to attack!

No, we have to talk about this subject in order to get authorities to act. Passengers need to be aware that threats still exist so they will remain attentive and learn how to defend themselves.

It is physically and financially impractical to check all bags for explosives, especially if the process is fundamentally flawed by high false detection rates. So, reason should prevail.

Why do we have to check all bags? Why not just check a percentage of them more thoroughly?

Terrorists would not know if their bag is among those checked for explosives, so it would definitely be a deterrent. After all, this same premise is the basis for having air marshals on selected flights. As the theory goes, terrorists are deterred from trying to hijack a flight because they do not know which flights carry air marshals.

Several companies now make aircraft baggage containers that can withstand bomb blasts, yet not one airline in the U.S.A. has chosen to integrate these products into normal operations. If all airlines checked a percentage of bags for explosives and then backed the system up with bomb-proof baggage containers, airliners would be protected against bombs in checked baggage. And guess what? It wouldnt cost a gazillion dollars!

As mentioned before, in reality, if a terrorist really wanted to smuggle explosives onboard an airliner, he would only have to strap them to his body and walk through security check points. As long as he didnt have any metal objects on his person, current procedures would not call for him to receive a body pat-down. Unless he was unlucky enough to be randomly(because we dont want to profile possible terrorists, do we?) selected for last minute scrutiny before boarding, he could walk on the airplane and detonate the explosives during flight.

Of course, body scanners of the type offered by Rapiscan would detect explosives concealed in this manner, but more focus is being foolishly targeted on objects rather than people. Since authorities have erred in dictating that EDS systems must be installed nationwide, there may not be any money left over for other, more effective detection systems.

The point is that there are only limited finances to improve aviation security and these should be allocated more rationally. Major flaws exist that are not being addressed.

It seems logical that those passengers who pose no threat should be able to circumvent draconian security screening. If low risk passengers can be expedited through separate security lines, all passengers waiting time would be reduced.

This can be accomplished with relative ease and some airports are already in the process of testing. For example, in Londons Heathrow Airport, several thousand Virgin Atlantic and British Airways frequent flyers agreed to have their iris scan data stored in a special database. This Simplifying Passenger Travel program enables these passengers to file past cameras and proceed straight to the gate once their identity is verified.

Biometrics is the science of measuring unique human traits, such as fingerprints or iris scan data. It also includes facial recognition and hand geometry. Embedding personal identification and biometric data such as fingerprints on smart cards (cards with integral computer chips) would also enable rapid verification of the cardholder. Airport workers and frequent flyers who hold smart cards would then be able to reap the same benefits of the Virgin Atlantic and British Airways travelers.

The FAA is currently finalizing its plan to utilize smart card technology for all airport workers across the country. If all goes as planned this technology will be extended to passengers on a volunteer basis. Finally some sense may come from chaos. Since fingerprint and/or palm geometry data storage is less complex than iris scan data, these have been determined to be the most suitable for smart card use.

The added benefit to smart cards is that if standard technology exists across all Department of Transport databases, passengers would be able to use their cards on any form of travel possibly in other government arenas as well.

There are actually many other options available for fast tracking passengers, too many to include in this article, but whatever technology is chosen, it is imperative that frequent travelers be encouraged to fly often as they are the traditional bread-and-butter customers for most airlines.

In Tokyos New International Airport at Narita, the airport grounds are completely fenced off with ten-foot high, electrified fences. All traffic coming into the airport, vehicles and passengers, is checked before being allowed access. In a system that runs smoothly, police check every vehicles containment areas for anomalies and check every persons ID and reason for coming to the airport. While this sounds time consuming, it is not. There are enough police at check points so waiting time is normally less than a few minutes.

While most of the police checks seem cursory, I presume they are astute enough to give vehicles and/or passengers more detailed inspections if they become suspicious. I dont think the Japanese are as concerned as us to profiling issues. In ticket counter areas, armed police maintain a high visual presence.

This is what must happen in the U.S. if we are to prevent airport attacks. Airports must become more secure and this can be accomplished without seriously impeding passenger flow. Cars do not need to be banned from airport vicinities, merely checked to see they dont pose a threat. Of course this will cost money, but not as much as installing EDS machines across the country.

Would you believe that TSA decision makers do not have aviation experience?

This seems absurd. Aviation is such a complex combination of dynamic factors that surely it requires someone with an inkling of its chaos before a rational, effective security plan can be formulated.

I believe this is one reason the TSA has focused on a couple of trees rather than the forest. The other reason, of course, is the knee-jerk decisions of Congress. Most members of Congress have no aviation experience either, yet they arbitrarily almost unanimously came to decisions they felt would improve aviation security. Case in point lets make all airport security screeners federal employees, that should fix the problem!

Congress seems so intent on creating more bureaucracies and more federal employees that one feels the consensus is just throw money at the problem until it goes away. To coin a phrase of pop culture, That aint gonna work.

Money it will take, yes. But not in the vast amounts that are being virtually flushed down the toilet. Security should not be a political issue. It is an issue that is vital to our survival; one that must be handled by people who actually know what they are talking about.

However, ultimately your personal security is an issue that you must take control of yourself. You must learn what to do if you are suddenly thrust into a terrorist attack situation.

I am concerned that everyone from the president down is warning people to be alert for possible terrorists, but not one person is articulating the fact that people must be prepared to act in their own defense. Exacerbating the airport authorities poor preparedness for probable attacks, is the general attitude among the traveling public that things are back to normal.

Most Americans have not given any conscious thought to how they might react if confronted with a terrorist situation. Yes, they may be following politicians advice to remain vigilant, but how many have given any thought as to what they might actually need to do if they spot someone behaving suspiciously on their flight, train or bus?

In other words, exactly what do we do to protect ourselves?

I give people the information they need in my book.

While the terms of our war against terrorism were delineated by President Bush, the current vulgarities of conflict with our enemies are confined to foreign shores. Our enemies are not easily defined; they come in many races. Whats worse is that they may live among us right here at home. This should make us nervous but life in American goes on unabated, with the majority of the people oblivious of the need for individuals to prepare to fight for their lives. We are at war a fact that most people fail to fully appreciate.

Congress also fails to grasp the realities of war. In disallowing the arming of pilots among the first murdered by terrorists on 911 we front-line soldiers have been asked to fight a war unarmed. The most popular reasons given for keeping pilots unarmed are that cockpit doors will be fortified in the future and that pilots cannot simultaneously fight off intruders and fly their airplane. Well, cockpits are not, nor ever will be, completely impervious to attack, and, guess what? Dead pilots cannot fly at all!

Once again people outside the aviation industry, people who do not have their butts on the line every day, determine whats best for us.

Dont even get me started on the how the poor flight attendants have been left out to dry.

Terrorists intentions are to scare people away from flying. This has the double benefit of wreaking terror while inflicting economic turmoil. As the situation in Israel has shown, we cannot prevent terrorism.

Further attacks are a given.

There is no panacea to prevent attacks. The security process must be layered and money must be spent across the board to narrow all loopholes. Will that mean complete security? Of course not, but by closing off easy targets for terrorists, their greatest asset, all paths of least resistance will be narrowed.

Passengers must be profiled, checked against criminal databases and given thorough security checks. Those with smart cards will find passage at airports easier. Those without will receive higher scrutiny. Facial recognition technology, body scanners, dog teams and various other methods of layering security should also be utilized at airports. A percentage of bags should be checked for explosives and the air marshal program continued. Airport traffic must be scrutinized and passengers should not be permitted to leave their vehicles unattended under any circumstances. More police should patrol ticket counters and baggage claim areas to discourage terrorist attacks similar to July 4^th in LAX.

Unfortunately for us, the markets are already fragile; any attack could drive the economy into another recession or worse. It is naive to think that terrorists have not reached the same conclusion about airport security as I have articulated in this article.

Therefore, airports and airlines remain primary targets.

Politicians and the TSA must be made to see reason in the allocation of tax dollars. Aviation security will not suddenly improve dramatically just because of an enormous investment in EDS equipment. Nor will terrorism be averted because huge bureaucracies are created in Washington. Aviation security is a multifaceted problem that requires action on many fronts. The fact that all the efforts of authorities seems to be focused on one area is depressing. It defies logic and laughs in the face of history.

We cannot give in to terrorism. As Israelis have demonstrated, it is our patriotic duty to shoot craps with our life and the lives of our family members. All I can say is that you do have some control. In my book I outline what you need to know in order to prepare to defend your own life and increase your chances of surviving a non-catastrophic accident.

In my opinion, the current worse case scenario is a synchronized attack using either car bombs or shooters at several major airports across the country. Alternatively, suicide bombers may attack airports and/or airlines.

The best defense we have is for the FBI to detect and arrest possible terrorists before they can act. The fact that we have not suffered any further attacks since 911 is mostly due to the massive response we undertook in Afghanistan and the interception of terrorists before they strike. That and the professed determination of President Bush to not rest until all terrorists are neutralized.

Will an attack occur before the TSA takes preventative action?

Almost certainly. Unless we adopt proactive and comprehensive plans to close off easy opportunities for terrorists the airline industry will remain vulnerable.

Survival Tactics for Airline Passengers

Available from: BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com and bookstores.

http://www.amazon.com