Undercover investigators smuggled decoy explosives through O’Hare at alarming rates six years after the Sept. 11 attacks, leading to calls Thursday for better training of security screeners, higher job-performance standards and harsh consequences for failure.
The criticism came as a new government report heightened concerns about the security of the 2 million airline passengers who travel each day in the U.S.
It found that screeners at O’Hare’s passenger security checkpoints failed to detect 60 percent of simulated explosives that were hidden in carry-on bags or in the clothing of agents working for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
The poor performance prompted a Chicago-area congressman, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), to seek a high-level meeting with U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials to see what can be done immediately to shore up checkpoint security at the airport.
The failure rate was even worse — about 75 percent — among TSA screeners at Los Angeles International Airport, according to the classified report, which was obtained by USA Today.
The detection rate was much better at San Francisco International Airport, where a private security firm that screens airline passengers for the TSA found 80 percent of the phony bombs that agents tried to bring onto airplanes, according to the newspaper account of the report, which the security agency confirmed as being accurate.
Such improvised explosive devices, creatively camouflaged inside an almost endless array of objects that include electronics, children’s toys and personal grooming items, are considered the No. 1 threat to aviation safety, said Ann Davis, a spokeswoman for the federal security agency, which Congress created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
TSA officials said Thursday that the high failure rate among screeners is a misleading indicator and that airport security is better than ever.
“Our testing of screeners has become increasingly sophisticated to represent the threat posed by terrorists,” Davis said. “The tests are designed to detect vulnerabilities, not to achieve a 100 percent pass rate among our security officers.”
Still, members of Congress and aviation-security experts were quick to assail the results as the latest evidence that huge holes remain in airport security.
“The TSA is saying that they gave the screeners a difficult test? Well, Al Qaeda isn’t going to make it easy,” said Kirk.
Kirk asked the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, to convene a summit at O’Hare to address the security lapses at the airport.
He wants the participants to include Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley, O’Hare’s federal security director and Chicago airport officials.
