Russian crash brings concerns at U.S. airports
Lawmaker: Possible plot highlights ‘insider threat.’
— The suspected bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt is raising concerns about security loopholes in the United States, where the vast majority of the almost 1 million employees at airports aren’t subject to searches like those that travelers receive.
Intelligence reports that an airport worker may have been responsible for planting an explosive device on a Metrojet Airbus A321, which broke apart and crashed on Oct. 31, are a reminder that terrorist groups might try to do the same thing here, said Rep. John Katko, a New York Republican who is chairman of the House’s transportation security subcommittee.
“I do think that the Metrojet incident has really pointed up the seriousness of looking at the insider threat at airports, both domestically and internationally,” Katko said. “It’s become a much more urgent matter since the Metrojet bombing.”
In most cases, baggage handlers, ramp workers and others simply show their badges to enter areas where they can access baggage and aircraft. After a series of gun- and drug-smuggling cases at U.S. airports, the House last month passed legislation co-sponsored by Katko that would study whether it’s feasible to search all employees and also require tighter background checks. The legislation hasn’t been acted on by the Senate.
U.S. officials have increased security measures this year for airport workers, but the Transportation Security Administration and an advisory panel made up of aviation industry groups and worker unions have rejected full screening.
Searching every employee wouldn’t be a “silver bullet” improvement to security and would be more costly than other methods, a TSA advisory panel concluded this year.
That is a mistake, particularly as a result of intelligence reports suggesting Islamic State sympathizers were behind the Metrojet crash, said John Halinski, the former deputy administration of TSA.
“Unfortunately, the bad guys don’t play by the rules,” Halinski said.
A spokesman for the agency referred to statements U.S. officials made in recent months expressing confidence in the layers of protection at the nation’s airports.
There have been at least eight cases brought in the past year by prosecutors charging airport workers in the U.S. with using their employee status to smuggle drugs, weapons or other contraband into secure areas so that they could then be brought aboard aircraft.
Last July, 46 people were indicted on federal charges they were part of a ring that conspired to smuggle drugs through Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Four members of the group were airport workers.