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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Original Mad Dog who wrote (6025)	10/18/2001 3:02:31 PM
From: CountofMoneyCristo	Respond to of 281500

janes.com Heads should roll: 11 November 1999 “These revelations render the US government stance that security across America is the best in the world as completely untenable,” concludes Yates. “If a criminal act has occurred in the case of Egypt Air flight 990, then a wholesale rethink on how the US goes about the business of securing the aviation system against such atrocities must be undertaken.” EGYPT AIR CRASH - PRELIMINARY DATA CREATES MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS Preliminary data retrieved from one of the two flight recorders recovered from the wreckage of Egypt Air 990 shows that the flight was uneventful prior to the autopilot being disconnected. Additionally, the speculated in-flight reverse thruster deployment did not occur according to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Given this current lack of clear and unequivocal data supporting a mechanical failure, attention is once again turning toward a criminal act. Federal authorities are known to have received a warning a month prior to the crash of a possible attack on an aircraft flying from either Los Angeles or New York’s John F Kennedy international airports. “Clearly there is insufficient information to speculate one way or the other presently, but if the downing of this aircraft was the result of a criminal act then security at both the US airport’s it passed through must be questioned,” says Chris Yates, editor of Jane’s Airport Security – Standards & Technology. Jane’s learned last week that an internal Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report lambasted security at US airports despite the Federal Aviation Administration having invested around $400 million since 1996 in widespread security improvements including the deployment of state of the art screening equipment. Jane’s found that: - In a high percentage of OIG tests involving explosive detection systems (EDS) personnel could not operate the equipment properly, and test items that should have been detected were not identified or even looked for. Equipment correctly identified every potential threat, but operators consistently ignored the information because of lack of appropriate skills, and cleared baggage containing potential explosive devices for transportation by air. - OIG inspectors found that while the automated passenger profiling system functioned as intended, airline personnel did not follow appropriate procedures. Personnel either overrode the automated systems or deliberately chose not to send specifically identified high-risk checked baggage to the explosive detection equipment for screening as required. - Some air carriers were not complying with the legal requirement to use explosive detection equipment for screening checked baggage, and three major airlines continued to use only positive passenger/bag matching in preference to processing baggage through the electronic systems readily available to them. - Despite more of the high tech computed tomography scanners now being in the field, the average number of bags being scanned per machine per week had fallen rather than increased. - In testing measures designed to prevent unlawful access to the secure airside area of five major US airports, results show that successful penetration by testers almost always resulted in them boarding an aircraft. These results are largely in-line with results from tests conducted in 1993 and reveal no improvement in six years. “These revelations render the US government stance that security across America is the best in the world as completely untenable,” concludes Yates. “If a criminal act has occurred in the case of Egypt Air flight 990, then a wholesale rethink on how the US goes about the business of securing the aviation system against such atrocities must be undertaken.”