Safer skies? Aviation security remains under scrutiny.

• Author: Jean, Grace
• Position: HOMELAND DEFENSE

Aviation security, measures adopted since 9/11 have not significantly made passengers safer or have been cost effective, experts contend. They also noted that many weaknesses in the previous system remain, despite billions of dollars being spent to enhance air safety.

In a report released earlier this year, Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at Reason Public Policy Institute, wrote that there are three basic flaws in the country's aviation security system:

It assumes all air travelers are likely to be a threat; it operates in a highly centralized, one-size-fits-all manner, and it is overseen by an entity that functions as both airport security policymaker and regulator as well as provider of some airport security services.

Costly screening technologies and other expensive measures are not making the skies any safer, contends Poole.

That assessment of the system is a striking contrast to what Transportation Security Administration Assistant Secretary Kip Hawley told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation just a few months ago.

"We are orders of magnitude beyond where we stood on 9/11 in securing aviation travel," Hawley said.

Poole said, "We have dealt pretty effectively with one big threat, and that is the threat of planes being taken over and being turned into suicide bombs ... but it has nothing to do with airport screening, which is where the bulk of the money continues to go."

Congress created the TSA shortly after 9/11 to help protect the nation from future terrorist attacks. The mandate for screening all checked baggage for explosives arrived simultaneously and the TSA spent billions of dollars to meet that goal.

According to a Government Accountability Office report, the TSA procured and installed 1,200 explosive detection systems, costing an average of $l million each, and about 6,000 explosive trace detection systems, costing an average of $40,000 each, between November 2001 and September 2004. However, because most airports could not accommodate the new machines in their underground baggage facilities without substantial upgrades and renovations, the TSA developed interim lobby screening solutions rather than installing more permanent in-line baggage screening systems.

"The baggage screening process is unnecessarily, hugely labor intensive," said Poole.

In facilities lacking an automated conveyor belt screening system, each bag must be physically carried to stand-alone machines. Not only does it...