REPORT OF THE - Archives - Syracuse University

worldwide responsibility within Pan Am for interpretation of the ACSSP. Several
security problems were covered at the meeting. Pan Am either sought to justify its
procedures or agreed to request written waivers from the FAA when local conditions
prevented Pan Am from complying with the requirements.
The FAA's memorandum of the meeting, however, shows that at least one problem was
raised but not resolved: Pan Am "servicing personnel who boarded the aircraft were not
appropriately examined" at Frankfurt airport, as required by the ACSSP. In April 1986,
Pan Am had decided after "discussion with the FAA" not to screen its own uniformed
and badged servicing personnel, regardless of what was written in the ACSSP. Sonesen
told the Commission that Pan Am had "a working agreement" with the FAA on this
practice. Pan Am never received from the FAA a written exemption from the personnel
inspection requirements. None of the FAA inspectors at Frankfurt cited Pan Am for a
violation of these requirements over the next three years.
Another of the FAA extraordinary procedures that Pan Am found problematic concerned
screening interline, or transfer, passengers who connected with a Pan Am flight from
another air carrier. Connection times could be close, especially at an airport with many
connecting flights such as Frankfurt. Under the FAA extraordinary measures, interline
passengers often fit into a risk "profile," or category, necessitating special screening,
including an X-ray of their checked baggage. This process could cause delays if the bag
of a particular passenger had to be located.
To alleviate this problem, Pan Am purchased additional equipment and in early 1987
began X-raying checked baggage of all interline passengers, whether or not they were
selected for further screening. This procedure satisfied the FAA requirements for
screening baggage accompanying passengers who boarded Pan Am flights. It did not,
however, satisfy FAA extraordinary measures for positive passenger/checked baggage
match, which were intended to control unaccompanied bags.
The FAA written procedures concerning unaccompanied baggage at airports such as
Heathrow and Frankfurt were clear. U.S. air carriers there were prohibited from
transporting any checked baggage not matched with a passenger who actually boarded a
flight, unless the baggage was opened and physically searched.
In the event of a "no-show" passenger whose baggage already had been loaded onto a
plane, for example, the plane could not depart until that baggage was located, off-loaded
and searched. This process was a particular problem for Pan Am at airports with
substantial interline operations.
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Baggage transfer from one airline to another poses a security problem for all airlines.
Currently, at high risk airports, baggage unaccompanied by a passenger may not be
loaded on U.S. carriers unless separated from a passenger due to no fault of his own.
Martin Huebner, Pan Am's chief of security for West Germany, told the Commission:
"Frankfurt station had problems with the reconciliation of interline baggage.... That
interline baggage had to be sorted out. It had to be checked out with the number of
interline passengers and, of course, was a lot of work."