Aviation Security

Who knew that the lone flight attendant on the first aerial hijacking of a U.S. passenger plane would be alive, well, and living in Manitowoc, Wis., 50 years later? And that she had hardly skipped a beat before returning to work? Evidently Inez McDermott is not easily intimidated. I gained a new appreciation for Midwestern stick-to-itiveness when I interviewed McDermott by phone while researching 50 years of aviation security for my story this Sunday in the Los Angeles Times Travel Section.

Here are some significant events and policies in the history of U.S. aviation security: 1955 A United Airlines plane explodes after takeoff in Denver, killing all 44 aboard. Investigators blame Jack Graham for placing a bomb in his mother's luggage, apparently in hopes of cashing in on her life insurance. It is among the first major acts of criminal violence against a U.S. airliner. Graham is later convicted of murder and executed. 1960 A National Airlines plane explodes in midair, killing all 34 aboard.

President Bush on Monday nominated a veteran federal law enforcement manager to head the new agency charged with aviation security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. John Magaw, 66, has gained a reputation during his more than 40-year government career for turning troubled bureaucracies around. He rose through the ranks to become head of the Secret Service, and directed reforms of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after the Branch Davidian debacle.

Who knew that the lone flight attendant on the first aerial hijacking of a U.S. passenger plane would be alive, well, and living in Manitowoc, Wis., 50 years later? And that she had hardly skipped a beat before returning to work? Evidently Inez McDermott is not easily intimidated. I gained a new appreciation for Midwestern stick-to-itiveness when I interviewed McDermott by phone while researching 50 years of aviation security for my story this Sunday in the Los Angeles Times Travel Section.

Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner said he likely will shift direct control of aviation security and intelligence matters from the Federal Aviation Administration to his office, a major recommendation of the commission that investigated the terrorist bombing of Pan American Flight 103 in December, 1988.

The country's official memorial to the Pan Am 103 bombing sits atop a hill in Arlington National Cemetery. Known as a cairn, it is a cone-shaped stack of 270 stones, one for each victim when the plane exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988. On a recent morning, a groundskeeper laid fresh sod around the base, preparing for Monday's memorial service with President Clinton. A distant bugler readied for a funeral by playing scales.

Chastened by a blast of congressional criticism, the Transportation Department reversed course Wednesday and said it will comply with an early deadline in the new aviation security bill for screening all checked bags for bombs. "We will meet the obligations we have under the law," a senior department official told reporters at a hastily called news briefing. On Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said it was unlikely that the Jan.

President Bush's nominee to head the new Transportation Security Administration told Congress on Thursday that he will meet lawmakers' ambitious timetable for overhauling the aviation security system within a year. "You will not hear me say 'can't,' " John Magaw told the Senate Commerce Committee during a hearing on his confirmation. "It is not in my vocabulary. And we will make every effort to make sure it doesn't creep in there."

One month after terrorists crashed hijacked planes in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the Senate voted unanimously Thursday to tighten airport and airline security, including putting federal workers in charge of screening passengers and baggage and allowing pilots to carry firearms.

How long does it take the United States to counter a threat to commercial aviation? In the case of a bomb stowed in luggage in the belly of an airliner, the answer is nearly half a century. And counting. Since a man placed a bomb in his mother's suitcase in 1955 and blew up a United Airlines flight over Colorado, more than two dozen fatal explosions have been recorded on aircraft around the world. Despite ample evidence that airliners are vulnerable to bombings, U.S.

More than nine years into our struggle against catastrophic terrorism, we still don't know how to find the needles in the civil aviation haystack. Aviation security has bedeviled us since 2001, in part because we have reacted to past incidents instead of planning strategically for the future. After 9/11 we banned box cutters, scissors and nail clippers; after Richard Reed we started X-raying shoes; after the 2006 London airliner plot we banned liquids over 3 ounces. And now, after a would-be bomber last Christmas hid explosives in his underwear, we are starting to peer beneath passengers' clothes with scanners.

People who see the glass as half full will regard the foiling of last week's international bomb plot as a triumph for counter-terrorism efforts. After all, it was the combination of a tip from Saudi Arabian intelligence services and fast action from U.S. officials that thwarted what is believed to be Al Qaeda's first attempt to deliver a bomb using the mail. But those of a more pessimistic bent will point out that the terrorists sought to conceal the explosives in air cargo simply because security has been tightened for passengers.

As the government begins deploying whole-body imaging machines to replace metal detectors at airports nationwide, some security experts worry that the new technology could make it easier, not harder, to sneak weapons and explosives onto airplanes. In the wake of the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing, the Transportation Security Administration decided to double its investment in the new machines, with a goal of installing 450 across the country by the end of the year and 1,800 by 2014.

WASHINGTON -- Two Northwest Airlines pilots have told federal investigators that they were going over schedules using their laptop computers in violation of company policy while their plane overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday. The pilots -- Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., the first officer, and Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash., the captain -- said in interviews conducted over the weekend that they were not fatigued and didn't fall asleep, the board said in a statement.

It took only a few thousand dollars to entice a Comair employee at Orlando International Airport to sneak 14 guns aboard a commercial flight to Puerto Rico last week, authorities say. But what if the stakes -- and payoff -- were higher? There's little doubt that well-financed terrorists could pull off something even more spectacular, said Isaac Yeffet, former security director for El Al Israel Airlines. "Who can assure me that explosives smuggled on board won't be next?" Yeffet asked.

CHECKING in at JFK airport before a recent JetBlue flight to San Diego, I discovered that my 9-year-old son, who was traveling with me, did not require any identification whatsoever to board the flight. In fact, I found that anyone under the age of 18 can fly several airlines domestically without ID and that the new Transportation Security Administration does not challenge this -- a shocking hole in any reasonable system of airline safety.

As the government begins deploying whole-body imaging machines to replace metal detectors at airports nationwide, some security experts worry that the new technology could make it easier, not harder, to sneak weapons and explosives onto airplanes. In the wake of the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing, the Transportation Security Administration decided to double its investment in the new machines, with a goal of installing 450 across the country by the end of the year and 1,800 by 2014.

Robert Knisely, a Transportation Department official, told a congressional panel today that passengers, not the federal aviation trust fund, should pay for better aviation security.

Re "Commuter Jet Crash in Kentucky Kills 49," Aug. 28 Aviation security consultant Barry Schiff's condemnation of the flight crew involved in the Comair Flight 5191 accident, one day after the crash, is irresponsible for a fellow aviator. The fact is that pilots taxi across and onto wrong runways routinely. The two runways in question with the same taxi entrance could very easily be mistaken, especially because the taxiways had recently been redesigned. Several reports have stated that the crew was well rested.

A passenger's stick of dynamite on a flight from Argentina to Houston exposed a weak link in aviation security: International airports are not always as secure as those in the U.S. The dynamite was discovered during a baggage search in an inspection station at George Bush Intercontinental Airport shortly after a Continental Airlines flight landed Friday.