Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

America's New War: New Aviation Security Measures

Aired September 25, 2001 - 10:11   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: Now it's time to check back with my colleague, senior White House correspondent John King.

John, I know you just heard those consumer confidence numbers. The White House can't be too happy about how they turned out.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, they can't be. You remember, Paula, after the president pushed his big tax cut through the Congress, he said that consumer spending would be the engine that revived the economy; that was before the terrorist strikes. The administration even more concerned now with the struggling economy. That is one urgent topic of discussion in Washington. As we noted earlier, the Federal Reserve Board chairman, Alan Greenspan, on Capitol Hill today to discuss the impact of all this on the economy. Congressional leaders discussed that with the president this at the White House.

Another subject of conversation that we are told, airline security. Obviously, an urgent concern, not only to the industry, but of American consumers as well. One proposal on the table in the last 24 hours, the pilots' union says it would like its pilots to be able to carry guns aboard air crafts to help prevent hijackings to insure safety in the cockpit. That a very controversial item of course. That did not come up in the conversations between a the congressional leaders and the president, we are told. But after that meeting the House minority leader Richard Gephardt telling CNN that congressional leaders did discuss with the president an array of proposals to improve security in the airline security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT, (D) MINORITY LEADER: We did talk about the steel doors that you can't get through, sealing off the pilots so they don't face attackers. I think we all think that's something that ought to be in this package. I'm sure it will be. incidentally, if we could get those on the planes going in and out of Reagan Nation here in Washington, we that airport can be opened more quickly.

We're also going to look at, in the interim, getting military police or reservists on the plane so that every passenger has a feeling of confidence to go back on the airplanes. We need to get people flying as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: To discuss these proposals in more detail we've brought in an expert, Peter Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, now a crisis communications director at APCO, a public relations firm here in Washington.

Let's start with the proposal, pilots carrying guns in the cockpit. A good idea?

PETER GOELZ, FMR. NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR: It's going to get serious consideration. But in aviation there the rule of unattended consequences; they need to look carefully at what the pilot workload is going to be. You look at the CVR transcripts of these guys and women who fly these planes in challenging situations, there's no question, they are heroes. They work extremely well in high-stress situations. I think it's going to be considered carefully along with a couple of other proposals, like Representative Gephardt's.

KING: Headlines in recent days somewhat alarming, if you will: Cropdusters grounded across this country because of a concern that some of these suspected terrorists may have been considering buying, loaning, leasing or steeling a cropduster to use in a biological or chemical attack. Is that a risk in this country?

GOELZ: I think the who area of general aviation and leased charter jets is an area that needs intensive scrutiny in the coming weeks. There is no question that the these terrorists appeared to have extraordinary interest in aviation and in planes, not just big planes, but in small planes. And we need to look at how we secure our skies from the commercial jets down to the smaller general aviation aircraft.

KING: Let's focus more on that. Obviously, these were commercial jetliners, large jets carrying passengers. In campaign coverage over the years I have been able to walk up to a small airport, pull out a credit card and lease a plane to follow a candidate, no security check, best I can tell, no background check, best I can tell. I carried my bags on the plane.

GOELZ: Absolutely. And there is a problem there that the FAA is looking at. I think they are taking a pretty methodical approach to this. But the whole area of general aviation, fixed-based operators, how they run their operations, what kind of security needs to be put in place is going to be a topic of very hot debate in the coming weeks.

KING: And lastly, if you want it buy a gun in this country, you are subjected to a criminal background check. If you work at an airport and have access to what we have seen, unfortunately, a plane that can be hijacked and used as a flying bomb, are you subjected to a criminal background check.

GOELZ: In some cases you are, in many cases you are not, depending on the airports. You're going to see after those reports that there were box cutters found in planes. You're going to see a whole new level of security in which any worker that's getting inside the gate is going to be screened, and I think they're already doing that.

KING: As Congress and others debate those proposals, Peter Goelz, we will have you back in the future to discuss them.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com