by Maki Becker and Greg Gittrich, New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Carry-on bags concealing potentially deadly weapons. Six major airlines. Eleven airports. Fourteen flights. And not once did anyone catch on — even at the airports where the Sept. 11 terrorists boarded planes.
To test security changes at the nation’s airports after the Sept. 11 attacks, New York Daily News reporters boarded flights over the Labor Day weekend carrying contraband — including box cutters, razor knives and pepper spray.
Not a single airport security checkpoint spotted or confiscated any dangerous items, all banned from airports and planes by federal authorities.
CBS News crews also tested security screeners last week, although they did not attempt to smuggle banned items through checkpoints. They carried bags lined with lead to block X-rays and sailed past about 70 percent of screeners at several airports.
“They’re impossible to miss, and yet they just continually let it go,” said Steve Elson, who once checked security for the Federal Aviation Administration and helped with the CBS investigation.
The four airports where the Sept. 11 terrorists boarded planes — Newark International, Boston’s Logan Airport, Washington’s Dulles International and Portland International Jetport in Maine — were all breached in the newspaper’s undercover investigation.
Kennedy and LaGuardia airports also failed, as did major international hubs in Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas.
Smaller commuter depots weren’t immune, with Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Santa Barbara, Calif., flunking.
“That is really disturbing. It’s actually beyond disturbing,” said Harvey Kushner, an expert in terrorism and airport security and chairman of the department of criminal justice at Long Island University.
“It scares the hell out of me,” said Kushner, who runs the security company Safer America and was waiting for a flight Tuesday at Kennedy.
“But it is not surprising. It underlines the massive problem that we have at our airports.”
The findings were almost identical to results of an inquiry the newspaper conducted less than a month after the terrorist attacks, during which reporters moved through checkpoints with dangerous items at 10 airports.
The newspaper this time found the airports had implemented a range of security procedures since the attacks last year.
Guards consistently checked photo identification, sent luggage through souped-up X-ray machines, examined carry-on bags, passed over passengers with hand-held metal detectors and made many remove their shoes.
The measures failed to spot contraband items in the reporters’ bags because of technological and human errors. The most glaring:
• A security agent at Newark insisted on passing a reporter’s bag through an X-ray machine twice after spotting a tape recorder, cellphone, two-way pager and radio inside. She remarked: “You’re pretty loaded up.”
It was 5 a.m. Few others were in line. But she never opened the bag — and missed a rubber-handled razor knife and box cutter.
• At Portland, two guards painstakingly picked through a reporter’s laptop computer case and purse as other passengers filed onto a jet scheduled to depart for Boston at 1:50 p.m.
When one of the guards came across a matchbook in one of the bags, he said the reporter had to carry it in a jacket pocket. Neither guard found the rubber-handled razor knife.
• At Santa Barbara, Calif., a ticketing agent escorted the reporters to a security checkpoint about 4:40 a.m. They had been selected randomly to have their check-in and carry-on luggage searched. On the way, the agent joked: “You haven’t taken any flying lessons recently, have you?”
The utility knife in the carry-on would not be discovered — despite X-ray and hand searches.
None of the instruments the reporters carried are illegal to possess outside airports.
However, most of the items are similar to those used by the Sept. 11 terrorists — and the Transportation Security Administration has banned them from secure areas of airports and flights.
The reporters disposed of pepper spray before boarding to ensure it would not discharge during a change in cabin pressure; other items never were removed from bags once inside airport secure zones, the newspaper said.
Federal officials, told of the newspaper’s findings, said they had inherited a broken system that they are busy fixing.
“We have a lot of work to do,” said Leonardo Alcivar, a spokesman for Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.
Alcivar insisted security has improved, noting that the aviation system securely processes 5 million passengers on any given day.
The nation’s airports are working to meet a Nov. 19 deadline for federally training security screeners.
The airports tested by the newspaper relied on a combination of federal screeners, private companies and local and state police. In Los Angeles, a bicycle cop was pedaling through the terminal.
On eight trips, the reporters were flagged as security risks — apparently because they had bought one-way tickets. The designation typically meant the luggage they checked was X-rayed or hand-searched and their carry-on bags were examined by hand at the gate.
But none of the agents who searched the luggage found the dangerous items.
During these random checks, agents typically peeked inside the bags, not bothering to unzip every pocket or remove all items.
“All righty, you can get on the plane,” a guard in Chicago told the reporters after he finished a search that lasted little more than a minute. He missed a box cutter and a rubber-handled razor knife.
The airports and airlines tested by the newspaper did not return calls or referred questions to federal authorities.
United Airlines, however, delivered a warning through spokeswoman Chris Nardella: “That is a violation of federal law that you guys knowingly took those items on an airline. You can be arrested.”
David Steigman, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman, could not say yesterday whether charges were expected against the reporters. A call to the FBI was not returned.
George Naccara, federal security director at Logan International Airport, where the reporters slipped by checkpoints with a rubber-handled razor knife and corkscrew, said: “What you told me is troubling. Absolutely.”
Naccara said razors generally are “very difficult to detect.” But he added none of the items carried by the reporters would be considered “deadly or dangerous.”
He said the two areas at Logan breached by the reporters still are staffed by nonfederal employees.
The security at Boston, Washington and Portland appeared to be more diligent than at the other airports, although they did no better in spotting the contraband.
At those three airports, guards X-rayed and unpacked most of the reporters’ bags. But they still overlooked rubber-handled razor knives, a box cutter and a corkscrew.
Also, random bag checks did not appear all that random on many flights. Before boarding, guards at several airports chose to search at least one passenger who appeared to be of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent.
The newspaper also discovered that security employees appeared less diligent when searching the reporters’ carry-on bags if the reporters were cooperative and friendly — or demonstrated a familiarity with their routine.
At Los Angeles, a guard stopped his search a few moments after the reporters pulled a two-way pager from their carry-on luggage and showed him that it actually worked.
“You’re used to this,” the guard said. He passed over the reporters with a hand-held metal detector and then added: “Have a good flight.”