Thu, Oct 23, 2003
Union Says TSA Is Enabling Continued Flaws in Aircraft
Security
The following is a
statement from Association of Flight Attendants, AFL-CIO,
International President Patricia Friend regarding the recent
discovery of box cutters and other materials onboard Southwest
Airlines planes:
A college student with no funding or terrorist training was able
to easily breach security and get weapons onboard several planes
last week. This incident should serve as a wake-up call to the
Transportation Security Administration that not enough is being
done to protect our nation's aviation system.
The most shocking part of the story is not that weapons were
found on the aircraft -- a recent GAO study showed that guns,
knives and box cutters routinely make it through security. The most
shocking and reprehensible part is that once these weapons are on
the aircraft, there is no one onboard who has been properly trained
to defuse a terrorist attack and protect the lives of the people
onboard.
Flight attendants are no better-prepared to stop a terrorist
than we were on September 11, because the TSA and the airlines have
failed to provide us with comprehensive security and counter
terrorism training. The TSA needs to stop pointing at the air
marshal program as a fail-proof layer in our security system, since
marshals only work a small fraction of flights each day. Most
passengers aren't lucky enough to have air marshals on board their
plane.
The pilots -- and their guns -- are locked behind reinforced
cockpit doors with explicit instructions not to open the cockpit
door in the event of a terrorist attack. This lack of appropriate
training leaves the flight attendants unprepared to serve as the
only means of security and protection in the aircraft cabin.
In testimony given
before the House Transportation and Infrastructure's aviation
subcommittee on October 16, TSA Secretary James Loy claimed his
agency had developed mandatory guidelines for flight attendant
security training but the agency was waiting for Congress to act
again before issuing the guidelines to carriers.
The real terrorists aren't going to tip off the
authorities or wait for the TSA to decide what level of protection
the flying public deserves.
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