Aviation Security: Long-Standing Problems Impair Airport Screeners’ Performance

Details

• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Government Accountability Office
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Airplanes Airport Facilities Aviation Baggage Screening Explosive Detection Equipment Explosives Firearms Metal Detectors Screenings Weapons X-ray Machines

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• Publication/ Report Number:
  GAO/RCED-00-75
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. General Accounting Office
• Abstract:
  The threat of attacks on aircraft by terrorists or others remains a persistent and growing concern for the United States. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the trend in terrorism against U.S. targets is toward large-scale incidents designed for maximum destruction, terror, and media impact -- exactly what terrorists intended in a 1995 plot to blow up 12 U.S. airliners in a single day. That plot, uncovered by police in the Philippines, focused on U.S. airliners operating in the Pacific region, but concerns are growing about the potential for attacks within the United States. The United States and other countries have a number of safeguards in place to prevent attacks against commercial aircraft. Among the most important of these are the checkpoints at airports where passengers and their carry-on items are screened for dangerous objects, such as guns, and explosives. Historically, however, screeners who operate checkpoints in the United States have had difficulty in detecting dangerous objects, missing as many as 20 percent during tests, and numerous reports, including two by presidential commissions, have detailed significant problems with screeners' performance. Concerned about the effectiveness of screening checkpoints and of the efforts to improve them, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and its Subcommittee on Aviation requested that GAO examine (1) the causes of screeners' problems in detecting dangerous objects and the efforts of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to address these problems and (2) the screening practices of selected foreign countries and the potential for using these practices to help improve screeners? performance in the United States.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:492b4f5c4433ded0b8b42dc477e6c43715f9cf95225e0db6d8c754c6ed1c8657
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/33909/dot_33909_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 948.00 KB ]