REPORT OF THE - Archives - Syracuse University

must obtain permission to inspect abroad and announce their visits in advance. They are
generally not free to roam the secure parts of the airport at will. In the past, FAA
inspectors have not tested, observed or evaluated airports' security systems, out of respect
for sovereignty and to retain the good will of foreign airport and host government
officials.
The General Accounting Office testified before the Commission's December 18, 1989
hearing on the crucial need for this evaluation. Kenneth M. Mead, Director,
Transportation Issues, of the Resources, Community and Economic Development
Division, stated:
By not verifying the adequacy of security controls and systems at domestic and foreign
airports, FAA inspectors did not provide a true and complete assessment of the overall
level of security on inspection reports ... We recommended that the foreign airport
assessment process be strengthened by making analyses of host country security
evaluations, including observing and evaluating host country testing, to assess the
operational effectiveness of various security measures. FAA agreed with our
recommendation and told us they plan to begin evaluating security testing at foreign
airports in 1990. [Note 2]
FAA initiated the program in January 1990.
U.S. Carriers Caught in the Middle
U.S. carriers are private entities required under U.S. regulations to conduct their own
security screening. In Europe, the U.S. carriers find themselves caught between the
requirements of FAA, exercising the sovereign right of the United States to protect its
passengers and planes, and the sovereign host government, which already has in place
what it believes to be adequate screening procedures. The FAA-required additional
screening procedures described earlier cause legal and logistical problems between the
carriers and the host government, which the Commission believes should more
appropriately be resolved by the State Department at the government-to-government
level.
Timothy R. Thornton, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Northwest
Airlines, described the problem succinctly at the Commission's April 4, 1990, hearing:
We had a dispute with a foreign government that went on for six months, where we were
out of compliance with the FAA mandate as it related to extraordinary X-ray security of
all checked baggage. [The foreign government] told us not to do it and the federal
government told us to do it. Sometimes we were in violation of American laws.
Sometimes we were in violation of the foreign laws of the airport where we operated. We
were in the middle. Finally we got some help from the Federal Government but, for six
months, it was whose jail did we want to go to. [Note 3]
In France, until passage of new legislation in mid-1989, it was illegal for anyone but a
government employee to search people and their belongings. France agreed to "look the
other way" as U.S. carriers or their private contract security companies conducted
searches. The applicable provision of the new French law has not yet been implemented,
as inter-agency discussions continue over its implications for French civil rights. Even
when the law finally becomes effective, searches by private companies will be subject to
supervision by the French Ministry of Justice, and will need authorization by the U.S.
Attorney General.