WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. airports can meet next year's deadline for machine screening of every piece of checked baggage with short-term fixes, but doing so will inconvenience fliers, aviation security experts told a House subcommittee Friday.
The House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee was evaluating the feasibility of the Dec. 31, 2002 deadline set forth in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act passed last month. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta has sparred with members of Congress over whether human- and canine-based inspections can quickly be set up to do the job until then.
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said the law's 100 percent screening requirement is a great improvement over current methods. The downside, however, is the Federal Aviation Administration has to come up with more than 2,000 machines to do the job, with a possible price tag of more than $5 billion.
"Few agencies have ever been directed to undertake such a formidable assignment," Mica said. "I am concerned that the pressure to meet the deadline will cause (the Department of Transportation) to spend huge amounts of money quickly without any assurance that the equipment they buy will detect the explosives."
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said the requirement is necessary. Since increased security in the passenger cabin makes hijacking much more difficult, explosives are a more likely method for terrorists going forward. New, efficient bomb-detection technology exists and could be deployed rapidly, he said.
Roger Rimington, chief aviation security consultant for Glenealy International Ltd., a British company that has handled baggage screening at England's Manchester Airport for 10 years, told the committee the law's deadline is achievable with screening systems outside the normal baggage-handling process, if conditions prove favorable.
"This would result, however, in a significant impact on the commercial operations ... due to the stand-alone process," Rimington said. "Such systems are only an interim solution, and not sustainable in many airports for the long term."
BAA, a British company responsible for operating seven airports in the United Kingdom, dealt with such delays when it tried stand-alone screening, said Ian Hutchinson, the company's head of group security. Proper planning of an integrated solution is critical, Hutchinson told the committee, and could be completed at most airports within four months.
Systems BAA uses can process more than 1,000 bags per hour, although suspicious baggage is diverted to a slower system, Hutchinson said. Rimington provided similar numbers, saying the redundancy of several screening machines operating at once is vital. Such a rack of machines is easily fed by a carousel, which can divert bags to the first available machine, Rimington said.
Frederick Muntz, vice president of InVision Technologies, the maker of a line of explosive detection systems certified by the FAA, told the committee his company is redoubling efforts to produce enough machines to meet airports' needs. The law's emphasis on training will bring better personnel to the job, he said, boosting the overall system's effectiveness.
The FAA has added 25 EDS to the nation's airports in less than three months, said Steven Zaidman, the agency's associate administrator for research and acquisitions. The FAA is also looking at creative ways to properly meet the deadline, such as developing a smaller, less-expensive but fully functional EDS for small U.S. airports, he told the committee in prepared testimony.
