Long After Lockerbie, Airlines Fly Through Safety Loopholes

AS AMERICANS FLY THIS THANKSGIVING, they won't be screened for explosives. Nor will bags be matched to ensure their owners get on the planes. Nor will airmail be checked.

WASHINGTON - As the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security convened last year following the crash of TWA Flight 800, panel member Kathleen Flynn confronted the chairman, Vice President Al Gore.

"Please don't waste my time," she recalled telling the vice president. "If we're not going to implement our recommendations, please just tell me now so I can go home."

Flynn, of Montville, N.J., has pushed for improved airline security since her son died in December 1988 when terrorists blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

But she is still waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration to close holes in the safety net that were first identified by a presidential commission formed after the Flight 103 bombing and again by the presidential panel created last year following the Flight 800 tragedy.

Today, hundreds of thousands of passengers flying during the Thanksgiving holiday will walk through machines installed to detect handguns rather than plastic explosives and will board planes carrying packages that have not been checked for bombs.

"There is still not any kind of a system in place," said Rosemary Wolfe of Alexandria, Va., whose stepdaughter was aboard Flight 103. "You can still have what happened to Pan Am 103 happen tomorrow."

Critics say changes fall short

Federal officials say that with the help of fresh money from Congress, they are implementing several long-awaited improvements, such as profiling passengers to identify security risks and mandatory matching of bags to passengers.

Critics say the changes, some of which take effect Jan. 1, have taken too long and fall short of the recommendations first made by the Flight 103 panel in 1990.

Congress boosted the FAA's 1998 budget by $785 million to $9.1 billion, including about $100 million for security improvements and another $44 million for security research and development, according to the House Appropriations Committee.

"We are very much well on our way to have the security situation in the United States more effective in preventing acts of terrorism," said Cathal Flynn, FAA assistant administrator for civil aviation security.

But even with the changes, potential security loopholes remain. For instance, prior committees have warned that security gains made by passenger profiling could easily be circumvented by curbside baggage check-ins or electronic ticketing - practices prevalent today.

And several reports raised concerns that the security workers who operate metal detectors and screen passengers hold low-paying, high-turnover positions.

No bag matches, airmail checks

The FAA's vigilance has been criticized in several reports from the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, and the FAA's own inspector general, an internal watchdog.

Its slow progress has been blamed in part on years of bickering between the government and airlines over which techniques should be employed and who should pay for them.

Some changes are just now being implemented after several warnings.

For instance, the post-Lockerbie panel asked the FAA to ensure that luggage was not loaded unless its owner also boarded the plane. In September 1996, the Flight 800 commission recommended a similar passenger-bag match. The airline industry opposes a full passenger-bag match, fearing it would disrupt service.

"We pointed out the difficulties in doing that," said David Fuscus, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, which represents the nation's major airlines.

The FAA plan, beginning Jan. 1, would require a bag match or explosives screening only for passengers deemed in need of additional scrutiny.

The Flight 103 commission also called for increased inspections of packages for explosives. The GAO reported in February 1994 that the Postal Service had not developed a plan to inspect airmail. The Flight 800 commission last February again asked for package screening.

FAA and Postal Service officials said efforts to inspect some packages are under way.