Airport safety shifts to ground crews

Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – A key component of a Bush administration initiative to make air travel safer will address the largely untested security status of hundreds of thousands of employees at the nation’s airports and airline companies.

According to some security experts, about 800,000 current airport and airline employees did not undergo stringent background investigations before they were hired, and the government now is weighing not only how extensively to review employees but also who should pick up the bill for scrutinizing baggage handlers, food preparers, ground and cleaning crews, and other airport employees.

Some experts said that such a program could cost more than $1 billion to implement.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will reveal a series of key decisions and recommendations today on how the government will improve safety at airports and in the air. While many of the new measures could be imposed immediately, others – such as the extensive background checks for employees – may require congressional action.

Some of the new security measures could change the way Americans fly.

A rule limiting carry-on baggage to one piece was imposed Tuesday on passengers flying to and from Reagan National Airport, and that restriction could soon be extended across the country.

President Bush went to Reagan National on Tuesday to announce that it was being reopened Thursday, and he said that new safety measures are in the works.

The airport, which juts into the Potomac River a short distance from the White House and other major Washington, D.C., landmarks, is the last commercial airport still closed after the terrorist hijacking attacks three weeks ago.

“America ought to be on alert, but we need to get back to business,” Bush said.

“We’re doing the right thing. We’ve taken our time. We can assure the American public, as best as we can, that we’re taking the necessary safety precautions,” the president said.

The airport will reopen Thursday with shuttle flights to New York and Boston. Gradually, flights to other major American cities will be resumed, but traffic will be cut roughly in half from before the attacks, and planes will follow new flight patterns.

Among recommendations Mineta received from two task forces, on airline and airport security: stronger cockpit doors within 30 days and new security training for pilots, flight attendants and other crew members within six months.

United, the nation’s No. 2 airline, said it would immediately begin installing steel bars on cockpit doors, and other airlines were considering new security measures, too.

The airplane task force recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration, the airline industry and pilot unions come up with procedures that could help thwart hijackings, such as depressurizing the cabin or making a rapid descent.

In addition, the government and industry should take steps to ensure that an airplane will continuously transmit a signal if hijacked, the task force said.

The airplane task force also looked at several other measures but did not include them in its recommendations. They included giving flight attendants a signaling device they could wear like jewelry, having pilots dump fuel or land immediately if a hijacking was suspected, and withholding seat assignments until passengers were at the gate.

Meanwhile, a move in the Democratic-led Senate to federalize airport inspectors who screen passengers and luggage appeared to be gaining support. At the White House, Bush told congressional leaders he was not adamantly opposed.

The Senate bill also would enable the Transportation Department to deploy federal marshals on board every flight, require the FAA to take action to prevent entry into cockpits and require new anti-hijack training for flight deck and cabin crews.