Point being - TSA will prosecute those who expose government buffonery. American is being warned to STFU. Best advice I could give anyone in an arguement with the TSA, or an airport security guard, is that they have to power of the US Government on their side and an UNLIMITED BUDGET to make your life miserable. American will somehow be punished for their honesty because it lacked deference to the all knowing, all wise, all powerful, government agency. It isn't just the TSA, it is the FAA, the DOJ, the FTC, etc. There is no restraint on them.
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By Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune reporter, 11:04 PM CDT, August 20, 2008
The Transportation Security Administration suffered embarrassment Wednesday over an inspector who climbed carelessly around the outside of nine American Eagle planes parked overnight at O'Hare International Airport. But just hours later, the agency struck back, saying the government employee portrayed as a bumbling Barney Fife was able to expose security lapses by entering seven of the jets.
The investigator gained access to the unattended Embraer regional jets during random inspections that are conducted every day at U.S. airports to verify compliance with security regulations and uncover potential security risks that criminals or terrorists could capitalize on to tamper with aircraft, agency officials said.
But American Airlines, the parent company of American Eagle, said it followed all security procedures.
"Security doesn't necessarily mean that the airplane door is locked," said American spokesman Tim Wagner. "We have security procedures, which I am not going to describe in any detail, that we perform with every aircraft overnight before the plane departs the next day."
In addition, the airline said actions taken by the security officer that the TSA later acknowledged were inappropriate—hanging onto sensitive equipment mounted on the aircraft fuselages to pull himself up to the doors—could have jeopardized the safety of passengers flying the next morning.
Fortunately, the airline said, "vigilant" American Eagle employees observed the investigator's "unorthodox inspection techniques," and maintenance inspections required under Federal Aviation Administration procedures were carried out.
Nonetheless, a TSA investigation is under way and could result in the security agency taking action against the airline, including fines, said agency spokesman Elio Montenegro.
"The aircraft needed to be secure and they weren't," Montenegro said. "It should not have happened."
Montenegro also said the agency has taken steps to "re-enforce education" among inspectors about equipment on plane exteriors.
The agency on Tuesday initially apologized after an American spokeswoman disclosed that the inspector could have damaged the nine airplanes he attempted to access by hoisting himself up from the tarmac using the avionics probes on the fuselages as hand grips or ladder rungs.
The probes, mounted on the side of aircraft, measure outside temperature and are key to maintaining proper temperature for onboard computers and cockpit navigation systems.
American grounded the nine planes until inspections concluded there was no physical damage. But the damage to American Eagle's O'Hare schedule was already done. Forty flights were delayed Tuesday, costing the airline money and inconveniencing hundreds of passengers, American said.
"We don't argue that the inspector used the probes as leverage to get into the aircraft," Montenegro said. "But terrorists would not be concerned if they broke a probe to gain access to a plane."
American said the TSA inspector lifted himself up to several of the airplanes using passenger jet bridges as well as the aircraft avionics equipment protruding from the fuselages.
Federal security regulations stipulate that jet bridges must be pulled back from unattended planes to prevent their use to access aircraft. The jet bridges are operated using keys and codes that only airline and airport employees carrying valid ID badges are authorized to possess.
The regulations also require that doors be closed on unattended airplanes. But once at door level, anyone can enter. Aircraft doors lock only from the inside.
Some airports require airlines to place security seals over aircraft doors when planes are parked overnight, security experts said. A broken seal indicates someone may have entered the plane and a security search is ordered.
But Chicago's Department of Aviation does not require door seals.
A city aviation department spokeswoman said she did not know whether Aviation Department police were present at the American Eagle ramp area when the TSA inspector entered the planes.
Douglas Laird, a security consultant who has had TSA contracts and who was chief of security at Northwest Airlines in the early 1990s, said American Eagle apparently did all it could have done under the circumstances.
"The TSA inspector could not have gotten onto the sterile airfield area unless he used his ID badge," said Laird, who runs an aviation consulting business based in Nevada.
"If he jumped the perimeter fence, that's an airport police lapse, not an airline breach," Laird said, adding, "It seems to me the TSA is making a brouhaha to cover the ineptitude of the particular inspector who has not been trained properly to deal with aircraft."
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