American Airlines wil standaard screening procedures

23 mei 2002 - 2:00
American Airlines heeft een dringend verzoek gedaan aan de Amerikaanse Transportation Security Administration Chief John Magaw om het screenen van piloten, cabinepersoneel, ticketing-agenten en andere grondpersoneel te standaardiseren. Dit is nodig om de luchtvaart beter te beveiligen.

Op het moment zijn de screening methodes voor flight crews inconsistent, schrijft Amercian Airlines aan John Magaw.

De brief was ondertekend door Robert Kudwa, vice president vluchten; Jane Allen, vice president vluchtservices; en Dan Garton, executive vice president Customer Service, die gezamenlijk verantwoordelijk zijn voor meer dan 57.600 American Airlines personeelsleden.

American Airlines doet een beroep op Magaw om een vernieuwd screening proces te introduceren omdat, op het ogenblik, iedere luchthaven en iedere maatschappij haar eigen veiligheidsprocedures hanteren en gegevens over luchthavenpersoneel in verschillende databanken opslaan. Daarnaast dient vluchtpersoneel door speciale check points te gaan op luchthavens en niet die van de passagiers.

Onderstaand treft u een kopie van de brief van American Airlines aan John Magaw:

May 22, 2002

Dear Undersecretary Magaw:

We appreciate your effort to develop improved screening methods as a part of a comprehensive initiative to fortify air travel security. As such, we are writing to urge an expedited and revamped screening process for our nation’s most trusted travelers – the men and women who crew our commercial planes and service our passengers. In light of matters discussed at your agency’s April 12th meeting on airline credentialing, and after hearing the many concerns expressed by our pilots, flight attendants and airport employees, we fear we are about to lose an opportunity to move in the best possible direction as we work to secure air travel.

Presently, the numerous screening methods among airports for our flight crews and airport employees are inconsistent, cumbersome and operationally taxing. We must design a new security regime that provides air transportation workers with seamless and expedited movement within and between airports. This means we need airline employee screening processes backed by a centralized, national database, and that any airline employee screening should be standardized, reasonable, and separate from passenger screening measures. Anything short of this does not improve on the current system and does little to deter terrorism.

As we understand it, TSA is establishing standards for a minimum level of security clearance for airline employees. These standards appear to allow each airport to define standards unique to that airport. Under this policy, airline employees will still need access cards issued by those airports not opting to recognize the proposed Transportation Worker Identification Cards (TWICs). Clearly, we desperately need to standardize.

Further, we understand that the proposed security standards would allow each airport to maintain separate databases of those employees with security clearance. Multiple databases create a time-delay weakness for locking-out or blacklisting at-risk employees. By the time the information is communicated to all of the many airport authorities and downloaded into each of their systems, a serious breach of security may have already occurred. We need to implement a national database.

Finally, to create a comprehensive airline security process that effectively deals with all types of threats, it’s important to understand and acknowledge that any potential risks posed by airline employees are different than those risks posed by passengers. For that reason, minimizing security risks for airline employees must be primarily accomplished by procedures outside of security checkpoint screening. We do not disagree that a comprehensive airport security program should include some form of employee screening at security checkpoints. However, such security screening should be accomplished at separate employee portals manned by TSA employees who use appropriate and consistent protocols designed to minimize operational disruptions, and should be based on universal TWICs or biometrics.

We share your belief that we, as a nation, must strengthen our airport security while supporting airline employees doing their jobs. We must not let the public or our flight employees down by simply patching up the current system’s shortcomings. Now is the time to adopt new and standardized technologies and policies that reflect a unified vision of safe and secure air travel. We look forward to working with you to achieve this shared goal and to your response on our ideas. Again, thank you for the opportunity to once again express our views and for your continued efforts on behalf of the airline industry and the traveling public.

Sincerely,

Bob Kudwa
Vice President, Flight

Jane Allen
Vice President, Flight Service

Daniel P. Garton
Executive Vice President, Customer Service
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