REPORT OF THE - Archives - Syracuse University

airports. They believe it virtually impossible to isolate the suicide bomber or the innocent
dupe who unknowingly carries a bomb aboard a plane.
The West Germans also believe language problems may prevent some passengers from
fully understanding the questions put to them. They prefer to educate passengers not to
accept packages or to leave their bags unattended. They further question the
qualifications of the private firms or airline personnel conducting the screening for U.S.
carriers, in comparison to the West German police assigned the task under German law.
Rather than putting so much effort into finding the dupe or the suicide bomber, the West
Germans rely above all on baggage reconciliation to catch the bag planted by the "noshow"
terrorist unwilling to die for the cause.
The FAA, on the other hand, is reluctant to yield control of security to foreign
organizations whose screeners may not have undergone satisfactory background checks,
whose security systems it has not been able to test or evaluate, and over whom FAA has
no regulatory authority.
As with foreign governments, U.S. airlines complain that FAA's screening requirements
are unnecessarily burdensome and less effective than the carrier's own procedures. They
argue that FAA's criteria for questioning selects too many people who pose no threat. The
carriers contend the time spent on many such low risk passengers limits the attention that
could be devoted to the higher risk ones.
AIRPORT SECURITY RECOMMENDATIONS
FAA Foreign Airport Assessment Program
[FIGURE NOT INCLUDED]
Source: FAA Office of Civil Aviation Security, International Security Briefing for the
Commission, January 8, 1990
The privately owned U.S. airlines are required to bear the costs of security, some of
which are paid by other carriers' governments. This fosters complaints by U.S. airlines of
a distinct financial disadvantage compared to their foreign competition. (It should be
noted, however, that foreign carriers must pay for security when they land in U.S.
airports.) U.S. carriers also complain that delays from FAA-required security procedures
compound the competitive disadvantage.
Arguing that terrorist attacks are directed against governments, not airlines, the U.S.
carriers began pushing in 1986, through the Air Transport Association, for a greater U.S.
Government role in aviation security as an alternative to placing the entire burden on the
airlines.
The U.S. carriers seek a system in which competitors who fly the same routes would be
required to implement the same security procedures. While unable to provide the
Commission with hard evidence, several U.S. carriers alleged that they are losing full fare
business travelers who are unwilling to wait in the lengthy American carrier check-in
lines, or to arrive at the airport two hours before takeoff, to clear screening. [Note 5] As
Northwest Airlines' Thornton explained:
[W]hen the vice president of international marketing for 3M is traveling every month or
every week to Germany, he's already accepted that there is a certain risk associated with