A breach in security

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

There was a time long ago when stories of stowaways held romantic appeal. The daring travelers, often running from bad situations, would experience the kinds of adventures that made for great novels and motion pictures.

There was nothing romantic, though, about the discovery Saturday of a stowaway who was found in the luggage compartment of an Ethiopian Airlines plane after the aircraft had landed at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, which serves the nation’s capital.

As reported Monday by The Washington Post, the dehydrated and exhausted traveler was taken into federal custody and is expected to be transported back to Ethiopia after databases indicated he was no threat to the United States.

The newspaper quoted unnamed officials as saying that such incidents are rare. The Federal Aviation Administration told California’s San Mateo County Times in 2007 that 14 of 74 stowaways worldwide had survived their flights since 1947.

The fact that it is still possible for someone to ride undetected in the baggage hold of an aircraft entering this country should be of grave concern to the Homeland Security Department, the airline industry and all others who are responsible for ridding the skies of potential terrorists.

This incident is reason enough for all U.S. airports, and for all airlines that fly in and out of this country, to review their procedures to make sure that no unauthorized individuals are aboard any aircraft.

This is not the first time a stowaway gained a free ride to this country courtesy of Ethiopian Airlines. Two others did so in January 2008. Clearly, Ethiopian Airlines has a breach in security that should be immediately addressed.

Before the 9/11 attacks, it was unthinkable that terrorists would fly hijacked aircraft into American skyscrapers and government buildings. That’s why the odds, however small, that a stowaway can slip through security and survive a flight long enough to do harm should not be discounted.

It is fortunate that the latest stowaway was not a terrorist. We might not be so lucky next time.