Airlines Flunk First Security Test

WASHINGTON – Airlines are not complying with government orders issued after last month's terrorist hijackings to scan checked baggage for bombs, the Transportation Department's inspector general says.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered broad and partly secret safety measures be put in place before allowing flights to resume after the Sept. 11 attacks.

But in checks at seven of the nation's 20 highest-risk airports over the past week, the inspector general found widespread noncompliance with orders to run all bags through sophisticated bomb detection machines.

"At most of the machines we observed no bags were searched," Kenneth M. Mead told a House subcommittee Thursday.

A spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a trade group for the airlines, disputed the finding. ``Our carriers are doing what they are instructed to do by the FAA,'' said Michael Wascom.

Manufacturers of X-ray detection devices agreed, saying major changes were needed in training airport screeners.

"The current screening process is much the same today as it was four weeks ago, offering a false sense of security to the flying public," said Peter Williamson, vice president of Rapiscan Security Products Inc. of Hawthorne, Calif.

Ralph Sheridan, president of Billerica, Mass.-based American Science & Engineering Inc., estimated that only one in every 10,000 bags checked on domestic flights is screened.

"We are here today because we have lost the public trust. ... These attacks were not the result of a failure in the system, but rather a system designed for failure," Sheridan said.

As part of broad security measures ordered after the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings of four airliners, the FAA directed carriers to make continuous rather than part-time use of their high-tech bomb-detection machines that used CAT-scan technology. For security reasons, Mead and the FAA would not disclose which airports or airlines were found unresponsive to that order.

FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said in an interview she had just learned of the inspector general's findings and needed to examine them further.