In perhaps the most stunning example of Massport's lax security
safeguards, Logan International Airport is missing a basic tool found not
only in virtually every other airport, but in most 7-Elevens.
Surveillance cameras.
While Logan officials acknowledged the ``deficiency'' yesterday, they
have tried to blame the two Sept. 11 terrorist attacks launched from
Boston on low-paid security screeners hired by the airlines, who are
believed to have let the two bands of hijackers slip through checkpoints
with boxcutters.
But the lack of cameras has prevented the FBI from definitively
identifying the men who boarded two jumbo jets and later used them to
decimate the World Trade Center towers in New York, killing thousands.
``It's not rocket science,'' said Michael Taylor, president of the
Boston-based American International Security Corp. ``Convenience stores
employ them, why wouldn't Massport?''
The shortcoming is underscored by the fact that the much-smaller
Portland International Jetport in Maine was able to capture images of
suspected hijackers Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari on camera as they
strolled through a checkpoint to fly to Boston the morning of the attacks.
``You have names (of hijackers), but the FBI has said it hasn't been
able to match the faces of those who were on the flights,'' said Charles
Slepian, a New York security consultant.
``Who boarded at Logan? You don't have pictures, and that's a problem.
And are those suspects the ones who actually got on at Logan or are they
still alive (somewhere)? Who knows? That's one of the big questions the
cameras would have been able to answer.''
While Massport does employ cameras in parking garages, ramp areas and
on Logan's roadways to monitor traffic, there are none to be found in the
terminals, gate areas or concourses.
Massport spokesman Jose Juves said yesterday that the agency's
embattled boss, executive director Virginia Buckingham, was surprised to
find there were no cameras in place when she took the helm two years ago.
In July Massport's board of director's approved $2.2 million to be
spent installing cameras throughout the airport.
``She recognized a deficiency and she took steps to address the
issue,'' said Juves, adding that officials were waiting for the results of
a consultant's review of Logan security before installing the cameras.
That ``deficiency'' seems to undermine Logan security chief Joe
Lawless' claim two weeks ago that ``we consider ourselves as secure, if
not more secure, than any other airport.''
While the Federal Aviation Administration does not require the use of
cameras, they were put into widespread use at most airports 15 years ago.
``Are you sure they're not there?'' asked Slepian. ``I haven't been to
all the airports in the nation, but for the most part they're (used
everywhere).''
Told that Logan definitely doesn't have cameras in the terminals,
Slepian said, ``Yeah, I'm surprised, but I've been surprised a lot about
Logan lately.''
Juves acknowledged that surveillance cameras could have played a vital
role, if not in preventing the tragedy then certainly in the massive
criminal probe that has followed.
``I think that's probably a question for the FBI, not us, but (cameras)
would appear to be useful in the investigation,'' he said.
Taylor, who has done consulting work for the Port Authority of New York
& New Jersey, said New York's three airports - Newark, the site of one
of the hijackings; John F. Kennedy; and LaGuardia - all employ security
cameras. Officials at Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C., the
other starting point for the terrorists, didn't return a phone call from
the Herald yesterday.
Since the attack, Massport officials have said what happened at Logan
could have happened anywhere and have called for federal agents to man
airport security checkpoints nationwide.
But there has been little mention of the ``Guaranteed Passenger
Standards'' program, an initiative to improve service at Logan that was
trumpeted by Buckingham and Massport board chairman Mark Robinson earlier
this year. The brainchild of Robinson, part of the program required
airlines to ensure that passengers not have to wait more than five minutes
to be ushered through checkpoints.
The program, touted as the first of its kind in the nation, was
scrapped days after the attacks.
In sweeping airline security reforms announced Thursday, President Bush
stopped short of federalizing screening operations, but did call for the
feds to assume oversight of the screening companies and maintain a
presence at all checkpoints.
The reforms come nearly 1 years after the General Accounting Office
identified Logan as one of the nation's worst airports for retaining
checkpoint screeners.
With a typical screener staying on the job only six months, the GAO
found the turnover rate at Logan to be 207 percent - the fourth highest
among 19 major airports. Only St. Louis (416 percent), Atlanta (375) and
Houston (237) rated worst.
Gerald L. Dillingham, the GAO's aviation issues director who testified
before the Senate on April 6, 2000, said the typical six-month stint of a
Logan screener means the screeners likely would never undergo spot
checking by the FAA more than once.
``We're talking about testing once or twice a year,'' he said, adding
that the FAA testers are typically people who are known by the screening
companies.
``Once you check one screening point, word passes like wildfire that
they're there. Yet even when they have the alert they don't do too well,''
said Dillingham.
Among companies providing screening services at Logan is Argenbright
Security, which was fined $1.5 million a year ago for hiring persons with
criminal backgrounds to do screenings at Philadelphia International
Airport.
Another screening firm, International Total Services, filed for
bankruptcy protection on Sept. 14.
Though the FAA responded to the GAO report saying that it had developed
a ``Passenger Screening Checkpoint Integrated Plan,'' Dillingham said the
agency failed to implement it.
His April report eerily predicted the result of that neglect.
``A single lapse in aviation security can result in hundreds of deaths,
destroy equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars and have
immeasurable negative impacts on the economy and the public's confidence
in air travel,'' he wrote.
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