Screeners Cite Security Flaws at Newark Airport

Thousands of checked bags are loaded onto planes at Newark Liberty International Airport each day without being scanned for explosives, according to a 9 May report by The Newark Star-Ledger. Through interviews and emails, six current U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees and eight former employees at Newark's airport alleged that, despite 50 bomb-detection machines, the airport has been unable to screen all checked luggage due to manpower shortages. "It's all smoke and mirrors. Stuff was getting through every day," said Dan Sabella, a former screener at Newark's busiest terminal. Although top-level TSA officials sharply disagree with screeners' assertions that security is being compromised at Newark Airport, they do concede that airport security is understaffed. Marcus Arroyo, TSA's federal security director at Newark Airport, said, "I'm able to assure that every bag that gets on an airplane has been under some level of scrutiny," referring to alternate means of review including the bag-matching technique. Arroyo added all checked bags would be scanned for explosives in "the very foreseeable future," as Newark is in the process of hiring hundreds of new workers in the next few months.

ANALYSIS: The Star-Ledger report portrays an airport security system overwhelmed by staffing shortages and pressure to keep lines moving. While not surprising, these problems remain particularly troubling because Newark was one of the three airports used by terrorists on 11 September 2001 and is among the nation's busiest hubs, having handled 29.4 million passengers in 2003. Newark was one of only five of the nation's 429 commercial airports to miss the extended congressional deadline for subjecting all checked bags either to bomb-detection machines or to manual inspection for explosive
residue. Although Mark Hatfield, a TSA spokesman in Washington, D.C., stressed that there are several alternative screening measures available that allow TSA to meet the 100 percent checked bag-screening requirement, lawmakers disagree. Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a member of the House aviation subcommittee that monitors TSA effectiveness, said that relying on Positive Passenger Bag Match at this late date does not meet "the spirit or intent" of the Congressional mandate that 100 percent of checked bags be screened for explosives. Menendez argues, "It's just unacceptable.Technically, I would say they are in violation of the law."