The head of the Federal Aviation Administration's security
field office at Logan International Airport was reassigned yesterday,
becoming the first person at Logan to be moved from a sensitive security
post in the wake of the Sept. 11 hijackings.
While speculation swirls around the tenure of Massachusetts Port
Authority executive director Virginia Buckingham and Massport's director
of public safety, Joseph Lawless, it was the local head of FAA security -
the person in charge of about 15 field agents who test airport security
from perimeter fences to passenger screening checkpoints - who was
reassigned.
Two of the four hijacked planes were from Boston and both were flown
into the World Trade Center towers, killing more than 6,000 people.
Mary Carol Turano, criticized by some present and former field agents
as a weak manager, was reassigned three days after the Globe inquired
about her lack of an airport identification badge that would have
permitted her to gain unescorted access to secure areas of the airport
that she oversaw.
FAA officials in Washington were dumbfounded to discover that Turano,
who had been on the job for more than two years, did not have a security
badge as of Sept. 11. One official familiar with airport security
procedures likened it to ''a general who does not have a visa to get into
Bosnia and all his troops are there. An organization does well what a
commander checks, and how can you check what they do if you don't have a
ramp access badge?''
''I'm sure that had something to do with this,'' said one FAA official,
speaking of Turano's reassignment.
FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac confirmed that Turano was reassigned to
the FAA's regional office in Burlington, Mass., where she will ''oversee
the hiring of new security personnel'' in New England.
Turano could not be reached for comment. A request to interview her was
made through FAA public affairs. Turano's new assignment was to begin
yesterday.
The Globe reported Wednesday that Logan had one of the worst security
records among major airports, based on 10 years of FAA testing. Logan also
had the most guns and fake bombs slipped past passenger screening
checkpoints that are controlled by the airlines.
The data did not indicate how frequently the tests were done at Logan
or at other airports, but the article quoted a former agent saying low
morale in the FAA Boston field office inhibited agents from doing their
jobs.
The agents staffing the Logan security office are responsible not only
for Logan but for other airports in New England. Agents who documented
security violations often became frustrated with Turano because she let
the violations pile up and took no action to reduce the backlog, said a
former agent who was assigned to Logan.
Because of the delays, airline lawyers were able to fight the cases
easily, several former FAA employees said.
''For an agent making a case on a violation, it's extremely frustrating
when nothing happens because of the backlog,'' the former agent said.
According to present and former aviation security officials, the
employee attitude survey of the Boston field office last year revealed
distrust of managers. Both agents and managers responded to the survey.
Only 18 percent thought that corrective measures were taken to deal
with supervisors or managers who perform poorly, with 82 percent believing
it was generally safer to agree with management even when management was
perceived to be wrong. Only 9 percent said they trusted FAA management.
The former Logan agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
Turano ''never did an inspection and had no background in security when
she was made head of the Boston office.''
The former agent said Turano worked as a budget analyst, and more
recently, ran the FAA's national canine program.
One FAA employee said Turano's reassignment was the ''accumulation of
things'' including a backlog of cases and resentment that she had not come
up through the ranks.
''The way she got to the manager's position was different than most
managers,'' the employee said. ''Most managers came up through
inspections. She did not. She came from canine.''
Turano had about a dozen years experience with the FAA, and supervised
about 15 employees in the security office. Her salary is about $80,000.
Sean Murphy can be reached by\ e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and Matthew
Brllis can be reached at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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