McCarran chief supports extended security deadline

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2002 | 11:01 a.m.

Clark County Aviation Director Randy Walker supports proposed legislation that would extend the deadline for airports to meet new security standards and federal bag checking guidelines.

"I like the flexibility of it," Walker said Tuesday of the new legislation that would give airports until 2004 to have a plan in place to check all baggage for bombs. "We don't have a problem with where the Transportation Security Administration wants us to go, but we can't get there by Dec. 31."

The Dec. 31 deadline calls for all airports to have millions of dollars of bomb-detecting equipment in place, and all baggage screened.

Airport managers including Walker, who runs McCarran International Airport, have consistently said that the deadline can't be met because of a lack of detection machines and space to put them.

McCarran has seven minivan-sized explosive detection machines (EDS) and about 50 table-sized explosive trace detection machines (ETD), but for all baggage to be screened the airport would need about 60 EDS units and 140 ETD machines to ensure all baggage is checked without forcing passengers to wait for hours.

The larger machines cost about $1 million each, while the smaller machines, which analyze swabs that are rubbed on luggage to pick up explosive residue, cost about $40,000 apiece. The EDS machines are in short supply as the two companies that manufacture them struggle to meet the demand of the nation's 429 passenger airports.

"We'd like to build the machines into the baggage tracks behind the ticket counters," Walker said. "If we try to put them in ticketing we're going to push big crowds of people outside.

"If we have overflowing crowds, then one suicide bomber in the terminal will cause more damage than a bomb on a plane."

Building a space for the machines behind the ticketing counters at McCarran would cost about $150 million, and the soonest it could be finished would be two years from the start of construction.

On an average day about 60,000 people travel through McCarran, with Southwest airlines serving as the airport's largest carrier. Airport officials estimate that four-hour waits could occur at the airport if EDS machines are crammed into the ticketing areas, displacing crowds of travelers onto the sidewalk and street outside the building.

The new legislation would allow airport officials to craft their own bag screening plan and submit it to the Transportation Security Administration for approval, said Rosemary Vassiliadis, McCarran deputy director.

"All of the airports are different," Vassiliadis said. "It doesn't make sense to shoehorn one model on all airports."

The TSA is using the Baltimore-Washington International Airport as a model for security and bag checking procedures. Baltimore averages about 2.8 people a minute through each security screening checkpoint, and the TSA is striving for a rate of 3.3.

Currently McCarran is averaging about 4.3 people a minute through each checkpoint, Vassiliadis said.

McCarran has already implemented some new features designed to achieve a balance between security and customer service at the airport.

Dividing walls are going up between the A and B concourses and the C and D concourses, so that only a single gate area would need to be evacuated in case of a security breach.

Airport officials have also expanded the number of security checkpoints from a total of 13 to 22, and this fall bomb-sniffing dogs are scheduled to begin patrolling McCarran with their handlers.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.,who toured the airport with Walker Tuesday, said there are still areas that can be improved at McCarran and airports across the country.

One area she addressed was weapons making it through screening. A recent USA Today article reported that 50 percent of weapons brought into McCarran make it through security.

"Whether it's 50 percent or 5 percent, it doesn't matter," Berkley said. "It's how we're going to solve the problem. We're moving with deliberate speed and addressing this problem with the implementation of better trained federal screeners on Nov. 19."

Federal employees under the TSA are scheduled to take over security checkpoints at the nation's airports on Nov. 19.

Walker said that he thinks airports will achieve the new security standards they are expected to meet, but cautioned it will take time.

"Europe now has a pretty good bag checking system, but it took them nine years to get in place after the bombing of Pan Am 103 in Lockerbie (Scotland in 1988)," Walker said. "We're going to get better and better as we build layer on layer."