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American Morning

Mineta Wants More Stringent Security Measures at U.S. Airports

Aired October 31, 2001 - 09:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And we've heard so much about the transportation secretary and what he has been saying about security lapses at the nation's airports. He is calling those lapses, still unacceptable, despite improvements since September 11.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is standing by at Reagan National Airport outside of Washington. She's going to tell us what has and has not been done to improve safety both on the ground and in the air.

Kathleen, good morning.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Well, what Secretary Mineta announced yesterday was a new get- tough attitude when it comes to these security breaches at the nation's airports that we've all been hearing about despite tougher security since September 11.

Now one of the instances, as a matter of fact, happened last week. A passenger mistakenly carried a small handgun through security in New Orleans, through the checkpoint and actually on to a flight -- a Southwest Airlines flight to Phoenix.

Secretary Mineta calls situations like that intolerable, and he says that the FAA is now going to be cracking down on any violations that it spots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORMAN MINETA, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: If a secure area is breached, FAA agents will empty the concourse, rescreen passengers, and, if necessary, hold flights. If improper screening of carry-on luggage is occurring, we will hold flights and rescreen passengers or luggage. And if we see untrained screeners, FAA agents will stop the operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now the FAA's 500 plus agents already on duty in U.S. airports have the ability to do that right now. But what Mineta wants is that more of them be deployed in airports around the country and that they exercise that power more often.

Other changes that the federal government would like to see when it comes to security are going to take longer to achieve. One of them, the high-tech screening machines that would check checked luggage that goes into the belly of the plane. Now the majority of that checked luggage is never ever screened.

And these million-dollar-plus machines tend to be slow, they tend to have a high rate of false positives and they are not deployed in airports around the country. The federal government is hoping -- they have a goal of having them in place at airports and beginning 100% checked baggage screening by the year 2004.

There's also the issue of electronic identification, something that would be tougher than the current ID and perhaps punch number system that lets people into secure areas of airports. This would be something like biometrics, perhaps using fingerprints, ID -- I mean visual scans, retinal scans, facial scans. That sort of technology is even years further down the road, but the federal government thinks all this is necessary to keep aircraft safe -- Paula

ZAHN: Kathleen, have you had a chance to talk to any passengers about how they're dealing with the new security that's in place, today?

KOCH: What we're hearing from passengers, though some may not like the delays, they like the increased security. And interestingly enough, a woman approached us a little bit earlier this morning. She said, "I want more security." She said "I don't care if I have to carry an ID everywhere with me throughout society if that makes us safer." You know, anything -- she's ready to try.

ZAHN: All right, Kathleen Koch, thanks so much for the update, appreciate it.

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