Airport and Airline Workers Should Be Screened, Ex-TSA Executive Says
A top security expert said the only reasonable choice for U.S. airports, following the Oct. 31 crash of a Russian charter jet, is to put all airline and airport workers through security checkpoints.
Checkpoint screening for airport and airline employees is the policy in most of the world's airports, but not in the U.S. where the focus is on vetting employees.
However, in two airports -- Miami International and Orlando International -- employees are generally screened, and in Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world's busiest airport and site of a Delta (DAL) - Get Report hub operation that is the world's biggest, employees arriving to work are screened.
A bomb, possibly smuggled onboard by an airport worker, is widely believed to have been the cause of the crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 after it left Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh Airport, killing all 224 aboard.
"As the threat evolves, we have to evolve our security," said John Halinski, former deputy administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, the No. 2 TSA job. He worked in Marine Corps counter-terrorism, spent 10 years at TSA, and retired in 2014 to become a security consultant.
"If it does turn out to be a bomb, some type of improvised explosive device, then it came about due to poor screening by airport authorities or due to an insider threat by someone who knew how to get around airport security," he said. "If it's an insider threat, that's an area that everybody including us has to pay more attention to."
Halinski said airport and airline employee screening should be broadly expanded, beyond just Miami, Orlando and Atlanta.
In Atlanta, arriving employee bag screening represents a response to the December 2014 incident when a Delta ramp worker and a former Delta employee were accused of conspiring to smuggle 18 guns aboard a flight in a carry-on bag in order to sell them illegally in New York.
Immediately following the incident, TSA increased random screening of aviation workers at various airport access points.
Additionally, in April, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson implemented additional measures that include a system for "real time recurrent" criminal history background checks for all aviation workers and fingerprint-based criminal history records every two years; checkpoint screening for airport and airline workers traveling as passengers; a reduction in the number of airport access points to secured areas; increased aviation employee screenings including random screenings, and re-emphasis of the "If you see something, say something" policy in the workplace.
However, Johnson said, an advisory committee "concluded that 100% of physical employee screening would not completely eliminate potential risks, but would divert critical resources from other critical security functions to mitigate other risks."
Department of Homeland Security standards differ from the International Civil Aviation Organization security standards that are in place at Sharm el Sheikh Airport.
Under ICAO standards, airport and airline employees must be screened, while the U.S. is more focused on vetting and random screening. (Caterers in both regions pass through vehicle checkpoints.)
The problem, Halinski said, is that ISIS seeks to radicalize people through social media -- a process that is difficult to track.
"TSA regularly run names through security databases and intelligence databases," he said. "It's a pretty good system, but here's the problem: If we just depend on vetting, and if I'm radicalized today over the Internet, you have to use other methods to stop me."
Other methods should include not only airport employee inspection, but also surprise checks of airport and airline employees, and closer attention to criminal and illegal activity that involves an airport and could provide potentially an avenue for terrorist efforts. The Delta workers' gun smuggling is an example, he said.
At Miami International, the security precautions include both of these methods as well as employee inspections, Halinski said, adding: "Miami has a higher standard than most. Everybody says it costs too much money and is too manpower intensive, but Miami has been able to do it."
This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.