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American Morning

Airline Security

Aired January 02, 2004 - 07:04   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In the last 24 hours, security officials have either canceled or delayed four British Airways flights between Washington and London. Another plane was grounded in Mexico -- this, at the request of the U.S. government.
Elaine Quijano live at Dulles International in D.C. with more on why these steps are being taken and what we know at this point, if anything.

Elaine -- good morning.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Bill.

Well, U.S. officials are not commenting, but another change in plans for a British Airways flight here out of Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C. Last night, a flight that was supposed to take off was delayed on the ground for four hours as passengers and bags were re-screened -- that on top of cancellations yesterday, all prompted by security concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO (voice-over): One day after fighter jets escorted a British Airways flight en route from London to Washington, the airline canceled the same flight due to security concerns, at the request, company officials said, of the British government.

New Year's Eve, roughly 240 passengers were kept on board that British Airways plane, while it sat on the tarmac at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Passengers were interviewed for several hours before being allowed off. The reason? A U.S. law enforcement official says about a dozen names on the flight's passenger list appeared to match names on a terror watch list. But in the end, authorities determined the people in question posed no threat.

In California, decades of tradition blended with modern reminders of the raised threat level. At places expecting large crowds, like the annual Tournament of Roses Parade and the many college bowl games, stepped-up security surrounds the events.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The security is dynamic. As threat goes up, of course, counter measures go up, and then as threats drop back and recedes so do counter measures.

QUIJANO: More than 1,000 federal and local law enforcement officers kept a close watch at the annual rose parade. Although there have been no specific threats, police used bomb-sniffing dogs, video surveillance and helicopters to monitor the area.

And in the airspace above the Rose Bowl, authorities restricted flights to only police and military aircraft. The precautions stretched to all corners of the country.

In Alaska, the increased threat level prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to temporarily halt the transfer of oil on to tankers from the Port of Valdez. Officials aren't letting down their guard, staying focused on possible targets.

PASQUALE D'AMURO, N.Y. FIELD OFFICE DIRECTOR, FBI: The airline industry, transportation modes, subway systems -- those still remain at a very high alert for this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO: As for that incident here at Dulles on New Year's Eve, a law enforcement official calls it an unfortunate disadvantage for the passengers involved, but said that safety is the utmost concern.

Meantime, officials are saying that this code orange alert could last through most of January -- Bill.

HEMMER: Elaine, thanks -- in D.C. there.

How effective then are the precautions? And how often might airline passengers expect to be held up by this reverse screening method?

From Washington to talk about it, aviation security expert Raffi Ron is with us now.

Good morning. Nice to have you here on AMERICAN MORNING.

RAFI RON, PRESIDENT, NEW AGE SECURITY SOLUTIONS: Good morning, and thank you for having me.

HEMMER: I don't know if you saw "The Wall Street Journal" article this morning saying that this Air France issue over Christmas with the flights being canceled into Los Angeles may have been a case of mistaken identity. If you've read the piece, do you have a reaction to it?

RON: Well, yes, I think that this is typical for something that is relatively new for America and for the world aviation system. It's the idea of sharing information when it comes to intelligence that refers to aviation security. And there still will be some confusion before the lines will be cleared and information will be exchanged in a much better way.

Assuming that the French were correct and the information in "The Wall Street Journal" described the situation as is, this is a problem that must be handled.

HEMMER: When it comes to reverse screening, how unusual is it? And what would a passenger expect if subjected to it? RON: Well, reverse screening is a method that is being used in three types of cases. The first one is when you have an actual event on board the aircraft during the flight, like in the Richard Reid case, where you want to see whether there were other people involved in that. The second one is when there has been information coming in during the flight that wants you to learn more about the passengers. And the third one is when you learn that there was a breach of security somewhere along the lines before the flight took off, and you just want to make sure that once the aircraft has landed that everything is fine.

HEMMER: A few other things we want to get to quickly. You mentioned after a plane takes off, I want to get back to that in a moment. But the "L.A. Times" is saying that security right now is at the highest level ever. How long can that be sustained?

RON: Well, it can be sustained for a while. I mean, if you look at the example of Israeli aviation, it has been exercising a high level of security for the last 35 years. So, we all hope that this will not be the case with American aviation, but certainly security procedures can be developed to the standard where you can live with it.

HEMMER: Yes. There's a theory out there that suggests maybe al Qaeda is just testing the system, putting certain names on certain lists to see who gets through and who does not. Do you buy that theory?

RON: Well, I'm not sure about that yet. Of course, it does make some sense, but we haven't had yet any evidence that al Qaeda has been adopting that type of strategy, but it certainly -- we should keep our eye open in that direction.

HEMMER: And back to the point about security breaches after a plane leaves. Why is it and how is it possible that a plane can get in the air, they call ahead and say we've got a problem here, we need to stop things and reverse it?

RON: Well, it may happen that you suddenly realize that the procedures were not carried out properly, and that is detected only after the flight has taken off. A typical example would be a technological failure of some of the systems, but sometimes it is also a question of performance. Of course, it's...

HEMMER: And better late than never obviously too in the very end.

RON: Right.

HEMMER: Rafi, we've got to run. Thank you again. Have a good new year. Rafi Ron there in Washington, D.C. talking about a number of issues out there today regarding aviation. Appreciate it.

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







Aired January 2, 2004 - 07:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In the last 24 hours, security officials have either canceled or delayed four British Airways flights between Washington and London. Another plane was grounded in Mexico -- this, at the request of the U.S. government.
Elaine Quijano live at Dulles International in D.C. with more on why these steps are being taken and what we know at this point, if anything.

Elaine -- good morning.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Bill.

Well, U.S. officials are not commenting, but another change in plans for a British Airways flight here out of Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C. Last night, a flight that was supposed to take off was delayed on the ground for four hours as passengers and bags were re-screened -- that on top of cancellations yesterday, all prompted by security concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO (voice-over): One day after fighter jets escorted a British Airways flight en route from London to Washington, the airline canceled the same flight due to security concerns, at the request, company officials said, of the British government.

New Year's Eve, roughly 240 passengers were kept on board that British Airways plane, while it sat on the tarmac at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Passengers were interviewed for several hours before being allowed off. The reason? A U.S. law enforcement official says about a dozen names on the flight's passenger list appeared to match names on a terror watch list. But in the end, authorities determined the people in question posed no threat.

In California, decades of tradition blended with modern reminders of the raised threat level. At places expecting large crowds, like the annual Tournament of Roses Parade and the many college bowl games, stepped-up security surrounds the events.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The security is dynamic. As threat goes up, of course, counter measures go up, and then as threats drop back and recedes so do counter measures.

QUIJANO: More than 1,000 federal and local law enforcement officers kept a close watch at the annual rose parade. Although there have been no specific threats, police used bomb-sniffing dogs, video surveillance and helicopters to monitor the area.

And in the airspace above the Rose Bowl, authorities restricted flights to only police and military aircraft. The precautions stretched to all corners of the country.

In Alaska, the increased threat level prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to temporarily halt the transfer of oil on to tankers from the Port of Valdez. Officials aren't letting down their guard, staying focused on possible targets.

PASQUALE D'AMURO, N.Y. FIELD OFFICE DIRECTOR, FBI: The airline industry, transportation modes, subway systems -- those still remain at a very high alert for this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO: As for that incident here at Dulles on New Year's Eve, a law enforcement official calls it an unfortunate disadvantage for the passengers involved, but said that safety is the utmost concern.

Meantime, officials are saying that this code orange alert could last through most of January -- Bill.

HEMMER: Elaine, thanks -- in D.C. there.

How effective then are the precautions? And how often might airline passengers expect to be held up by this reverse screening method?

From Washington to talk about it, aviation security expert Raffi Ron is with us now.

Good morning. Nice to have you here on AMERICAN MORNING.

RAFI RON, PRESIDENT, NEW AGE SECURITY SOLUTIONS: Good morning, and thank you for having me.

HEMMER: I don't know if you saw "The Wall Street Journal" article this morning saying that this Air France issue over Christmas with the flights being canceled into Los Angeles may have been a case of mistaken identity. If you've read the piece, do you have a reaction to it?

RON: Well, yes, I think that this is typical for something that is relatively new for America and for the world aviation system. It's the idea of sharing information when it comes to intelligence that refers to aviation security. And there still will be some confusion before the lines will be cleared and information will be exchanged in a much better way.

Assuming that the French were correct and the information in "The Wall Street Journal" described the situation as is, this is a problem that must be handled.

HEMMER: When it comes to reverse screening, how unusual is it? And what would a passenger expect if subjected to it? RON: Well, reverse screening is a method that is being used in three types of cases. The first one is when you have an actual event on board the aircraft during the flight, like in the Richard Reid case, where you want to see whether there were other people involved in that. The second one is when there has been information coming in during the flight that wants you to learn more about the passengers. And the third one is when you learn that there was a breach of security somewhere along the lines before the flight took off, and you just want to make sure that once the aircraft has landed that everything is fine.

HEMMER: A few other things we want to get to quickly. You mentioned after a plane takes off, I want to get back to that in a moment. But the "L.A. Times" is saying that security right now is at the highest level ever. How long can that be sustained?

RON: Well, it can be sustained for a while. I mean, if you look at the example of Israeli aviation, it has been exercising a high level of security for the last 35 years. So, we all hope that this will not be the case with American aviation, but certainly security procedures can be developed to the standard where you can live with it.

HEMMER: Yes. There's a theory out there that suggests maybe al Qaeda is just testing the system, putting certain names on certain lists to see who gets through and who does not. Do you buy that theory?

RON: Well, I'm not sure about that yet. Of course, it does make some sense, but we haven't had yet any evidence that al Qaeda has been adopting that type of strategy, but it certainly -- we should keep our eye open in that direction.

HEMMER: And back to the point about security breaches after a plane leaves. Why is it and how is it possible that a plane can get in the air, they call ahead and say we've got a problem here, we need to stop things and reverse it?

RON: Well, it may happen that you suddenly realize that the procedures were not carried out properly, and that is detected only after the flight has taken off. A typical example would be a technological failure of some of the systems, but sometimes it is also a question of performance. Of course, it's...

HEMMER: And better late than never obviously too in the very end.

RON: Right.

HEMMER: Rafi, we've got to run. Thank you again. Have a good new year. Rafi Ron there in Washington, D.C. talking about a number of issues out there today regarding aviation. Appreciate it.

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