Airport expects to meet security deadline

Jace Radke

Monday, Dec. 9, 2002 | 10:15 a.m.

Eighteen months from now McCarran International Airport may have the elite method of explosives detection in place -- a conveyor belt system that runs baggage through electronic screening in a room behind the ticketing area.

Until then the airport will rely on a hodgepodge of methods to meet the Bush administration's Dec. 31 deadline for 100 percent screening of baggage for explosives.

"We plan on meeting the deadline, but we're already working on the next step," Jim Blair, McCarran's federal security director, said. "Right now we're in the design stage, but I estimate that we'll have an in-line system in 18 months."

Such a system would clear the airport's ticketing area of explosives detection machines, or EDS, that resemble X-ray machines super-sized to minivan-sized proportions.

It would require a total of about 60 EDS machines and 140 tabletop explosives trace detection machines, or ETD, to process the baggage on the in-line system. Constructing an addition to the ticketing area to house the machines could cost more than $150 million, airport officials said.

"That's the long-range solution that makes the most sense because it utilizes the best technology for security and is also the best method for customer service," Blair said.

Clark County Aviation officials have been working to balance security with customer service since the Transportation Safety Administration began to make sweeping changes in security in the air travel industry. That balance will again be put to the test with the arrival of the Dec. 31 deadline.

McCarran will rely on a combination of bomb-sniffing dogs, hand searches and a limited supply of EDS and ETD machines to get the job done.

Currently McCarran has seven EDS and 25 ETD machines for checked baggage screening. Blair said he is confident that the TSA will deliver six more EDS machines and 25 more ETD machines before the deadline.

If the machines don't arrive as expected, as much baggage as possible will continue to be screened. During slower periods McCarran has already reached 100 percent baggage screening, Blair said.

The TSA pays for the machines at a cost of $1 million each for the EDS machines and about $40,000 apiece for ETD machines.

They will be set up in ticketing, where all bags will be screened, but McCarran officials say they don't expect the additional checks to slow down passengers.

"We have come miles and miles with this plan by working with our local TSA representatives, and we don't think there are going to be any problems," Rosemary Vassiliadis, Clark County deputy aviation director, said. "There are always adjustment periods when any of these new measures are implemented, but we feel this plan addresses customer service."

The plan also calls for conveyor belts to be installed over the next three weeks from some of the ticketing counters to some of the EDS machine to speed up the screening process.

Travelers checking bags will go to the ticket counter just as they have in the past, but once they have their boarding passes their bags will be screened, Blair said.

"Either an airline employee will take the bags to a screener or the traveler will be asked to take the bag to a screener," Blair said. "The travelers then can continue on their way to the gate and their bag will be screened and sent on to the plane."

The TSA is responsible for approving a baggage screening plan in each of the nation's 429 airports, and McCarran's plan is still pending approval. McCarran already had one plan rejected by the TSA, and Boeing, which has been working with the TSA as a consultant, has also had a screening plan for McCarran rejected.

The difficulty in getting a plan in place for McCarran partially stems from the unique passenger flow at the airport. McCarran is second only to Los Angeles International Airport as the busiest airport in the world in terms of numbers of passengers originating a trip.

On an average day about 60,000 people travel through McCarran, but during peak times that number can increase to more than 100,000 travelers.

"The complexity of McCarran with the peak travel times and the number of passengers with baggage is challenging," Blair said. "We're confident that we are going to have security that will not create long wait times on Jan. 1.

"Sometimes security impacts customer service, but our job is to make sure travelers are impacted as little as possible."

Airports can make a request to the TSA to extend the deadline by a year, according to a law signed by President Bush last week as part of the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

Clark County Aviation officials had been in favor of an extension in the past, when there were unanswered questions about how screening would be conducted and how it would affect customer service. Those concerns have been addressed in the latest plan and the airport is ready to move forward, McCarran spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said.

While requesting an extension remains a possibility if the new screening system does not go smoothly, it's not an option that Blair wants to resort to.

"We prefer not to ask for an extension, because we feel obligated to do everything we can to try to make people as secure as possible at McCarran," Blair said.

If the system becomes backed up and long waits begin to materialize, Blair said, he would make a decision at that time on what to do.

"I'm not going to say what I would do," Blair said. "There are certain things we don't want to tell the terrorists."

TSA employees took over the checked baggage screening from private contract baggage screeners on Monday. There are currently 950 TSA employees working at the airport, with a total of 1,000 expected to be working by Jan. 1, Blair said.