Airport Security Instructors: We Were Given Test Answers
Newsday ^ | January 28, 2003 | Thomas Frank
Washington -- Three people who taught airport-security screeners said Monday that before they took their own tests to become certified instructors, they were given answers to the test questions.
The instructors said that during training classes last year, their teachers read and answered multiple-choice questions that were on a written test they immediately took. Newsday reported Sunday that four LaGuardia Airport screeners said they had been given answers to questions moments before they took a certification test to operate machines that detect bombs in checked luggage.
For instructors, passing the test enabled them to teach members of the new government-hired airport security how to search for bombs in luggage.
"Five minutes before they're giving the test, they were literally reading the questions to us,” said instructor Michael Martel of Miami. "I didn't really need to use my notes that much because I could remember the question. But if there was one where I didn't remember the answer, I could look over at my notes and the answer was right there.”
Martel said he was given answers to every question in each of the five or six written tests he took in September during a week of training in Dallas. He then taught baggage screeners at airports in Norfolk, Va., and Tampa.
The federal Transportation Security Administration, which took over airport security a year ago, said giving answers would violate training protocols but has expressed doubt about the statements of the LaGuardia screeners, whom Newsday did not identify because they feared retaliation.
"I have no doubt they were given the answers to that test because I was,” said Judi Chesley of New Hampshire, who was trained to be an instructor last October in Cleveland and then taught screeners at LaGuardia. "Whenever I took a test, I was given all the answers,” Chesley added.
TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said Monday that the agency has "the highest confidence” in the 23,000 screeners who since Dec. 31 have been inspecting all checked baggage for explosives. "Every one of them has the ability to detect bombs using the equipment and procedures that they've been trained to use,” he said.
A spokesman for Boeing Co., which the TSA hired to train baggage screeners, said the instructors are "very well qualified.”
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Monday for an investigation of the LaGuardia screeners' statements by the Transportation Department. "These allegations send shivers down my spine,” Schumer said.
Acknowledging the TSA doubts about the screeners' statements, Schumer said, "Our national security is too important to let any allegation as serious as these go unchecked.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Far Rockaway), whose district includes LaGuardia, said the screeners' statements raise "serious concerns” because Congress wanted to improve the quality of screeners when it moved airport security to the federal government from private security companies.
One instructor, who asked not to be named fearing retaliation, said he spent a week certifying baggage screeners in Orlando, Fla., who were learning how to operate a bomb-detection machine that he himself was not certified to use.
"How am I supposed to certify them when we never got certified?” the instructor said, adding that he had been certified on a different bomb-detection machine -- also being used at airports -- during his own training. "There were a whole bunch of us that were not certified until the second week. They ran us through a class real quick.”
The instructor said he had figured out how to use the machine before he got certified and that his students "never knew I wasn't certified.”
Chesley, the LaGuardia instructor, said superiors told her to keep going over hands-on tests with screeners until they passed. "Our purpose was to make sure they were doing the job correctly, but we were not to say any of them were not going to be able to do the job correctly. They were all going to pass.”
All three instructors interviewed Monday said they gave hands-on training -- not classroom training -- to new baggage screeners.
Newsday ^ | January 28, 2003 | Thomas Frank
Washington -- Three people who taught airport-security screeners said Monday that before they took their own tests to become certified instructors, they were given answers to the test questions.
The instructors said that during training classes last year, their teachers read and answered multiple-choice questions that were on a written test they immediately took. Newsday reported Sunday that four LaGuardia Airport screeners said they had been given answers to questions moments before they took a certification test to operate machines that detect bombs in checked luggage.
For instructors, passing the test enabled them to teach members of the new government-hired airport security how to search for bombs in luggage.
"Five minutes before they're giving the test, they were literally reading the questions to us,” said instructor Michael Martel of Miami. "I didn't really need to use my notes that much because I could remember the question. But if there was one where I didn't remember the answer, I could look over at my notes and the answer was right there.”
Martel said he was given answers to every question in each of the five or six written tests he took in September during a week of training in Dallas. He then taught baggage screeners at airports in Norfolk, Va., and Tampa.
The federal Transportation Security Administration, which took over airport security a year ago, said giving answers would violate training protocols but has expressed doubt about the statements of the LaGuardia screeners, whom Newsday did not identify because they feared retaliation.
"I have no doubt they were given the answers to that test because I was,” said Judi Chesley of New Hampshire, who was trained to be an instructor last October in Cleveland and then taught screeners at LaGuardia. "Whenever I took a test, I was given all the answers,” Chesley added.
TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said Monday that the agency has "the highest confidence” in the 23,000 screeners who since Dec. 31 have been inspecting all checked baggage for explosives. "Every one of them has the ability to detect bombs using the equipment and procedures that they've been trained to use,” he said.
A spokesman for Boeing Co., which the TSA hired to train baggage screeners, said the instructors are "very well qualified.”
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Monday for an investigation of the LaGuardia screeners' statements by the Transportation Department. "These allegations send shivers down my spine,” Schumer said.
Acknowledging the TSA doubts about the screeners' statements, Schumer said, "Our national security is too important to let any allegation as serious as these go unchecked.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Far Rockaway), whose district includes LaGuardia, said the screeners' statements raise "serious concerns” because Congress wanted to improve the quality of screeners when it moved airport security to the federal government from private security companies.
One instructor, who asked not to be named fearing retaliation, said he spent a week certifying baggage screeners in Orlando, Fla., who were learning how to operate a bomb-detection machine that he himself was not certified to use.
"How am I supposed to certify them when we never got certified?” the instructor said, adding that he had been certified on a different bomb-detection machine -- also being used at airports -- during his own training. "There were a whole bunch of us that were not certified until the second week. They ran us through a class real quick.”
The instructor said he had figured out how to use the machine before he got certified and that his students "never knew I wasn't certified.”
Chesley, the LaGuardia instructor, said superiors told her to keep going over hands-on tests with screeners until they passed. "Our purpose was to make sure they were doing the job correctly, but we were not to say any of them were not going to be able to do the job correctly. They were all going to pass.”
All three instructors interviewed Monday said they gave hands-on training -- not classroom training -- to new baggage screeners.
