Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Expert Discusses Airport Security
Aired August 26, 2002 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Passengers in airplanes are moving again at Denver International Airport after a security snafu there brought the rush to a dead stop. Flights were held, concourses was cleared, and passengers rescreened after somebody supposedly passed a checkpoint without being checked. At last word, the person hadn't been found.
A Denver airport spokesman remains the travelers are by and large tolerant of situations like today's, because that is just the way it is now.
Live from Reno with some insight on that is aviation security analyst Doug Laird.
Hi, Doug.
DOUG LAIRD, AVIATION SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning -- or good afternoon.
PHILLIPS: Hey, it's the same thing, we start so early in the day.
What is your first reaction? Do you think this is the way it goes and we have to deal with it?
LAIRD: No, not at all. There are a number of technologies available today that would eliminate the problem of people slipping through the exit lane of checkpoints. For some reason, the TSA has been slow in deploying those technologies.
PHILLIPS: All right, let's talk about those technologies. What are we not seeing?
LAIRD: Well, there are several companies that have technologies that analyze the digital image of passengers coming through the checkpoint and they can tell if a person bolts through, obtain a digital image of that person and transmit it, for example, to PDA's digital assistance -- that the police can have -- so at least they know what they are looking for. They can also activate various doors that could close on the concourses so you don't have to empty an entire airport when one of these instances occurs.
PHILLIPS: So is the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) just not doing its job?
LAIRD: I think that is a little harsh. The TSA has a job in of itself forming that very large organization. However, I think, as time progress, the public will become more intolerant of these incidents that continue to occur at checkpoints when there is really is a rather simple solution.
PHILLIPS: Now the Transportation Security Administration is supposed to take all screening by November 19. Do they think that organization is going to make the deadline?
LAIRD: It is going to be difficult. They just aren't having the success they thought they would in hiring people. But they may. There are other issues, though, that need to be addressed in addition to that.
PHILLIPS: Well, there is also this issue of the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. Another story we're reporting today, Doug, and that is this woman that shows up in Philly. She had left Atlanta, shows up in Philly with a .357 loaded gun and says she didn't know that it was in there. Your first reaction to this? Then, let's talk about the screening process.
LAIRD: Well, those situations have happened for as long as I can recall. We are a nation of guns. Fortunately or unfortunately when that is the case, people will have firearms in a briefcase, in a roller board, whatever. The news stories that I have heard, the woman claims she didn't know the weapon was in her suitcase. I find this perfectly feasible. However, the United States government will prosecute because you don't have to have knowledge that the weapon was present. There is a zero tolerance policy, and people need to be prosecuted for that sort of thing.
Likewise, there will be human failures, and when you run the bag -- in the case, probably a small suitcase -- through the X-ray machine at a screening checkpoint, every now and again, a human being will miss seeing that particular object. It shouldn't happen very often, but it will happen occasionally, regardless of what we do.
PHILLIPS: It is not like we have been reporting these incidents 20 time a day every day. So you are saying I should not be worried if I have to get on a flight in Atlanta and fly out today?
LAIRD: I certainly wouldn't be. But at the same time, if you look at the FAA statistics -- most currently about two years old -- somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 knives and firearms are collected at checkpoints in a period of a year. And the public needs to understand that this has to stop.
PHILLIPS: Let's hope the TSA makes that November deadline.
Doug Laird, thank you, sir.
LAIRD: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
