Inspect All Air Cargo

Photo Vinny DuPre Congressmembers Carolyn Maloney and Anthony Weiner during press conference at LaGuardia Airport. Congressmembers Carolyn Maloney (D-Queens/Manhattan) and Anthony Weiner (D-Queens/Brooklyn) expressed their strong support for legislation that would require the Department of Homeland Security to inspect all cargo before it is transported on passenger planes. While 22 percent of air cargo in the U.S. is carried on passenger planes, currently almost none of that cargo is inspected for explosives or other dangerous materials prior to being loaded onboard.

"Right now, cargo is loaded onto airplanes unscreened and unseen," Maloney said. "This is an unacceptable danger to airline passengers and crew members. If a bomb like the one that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 were shipped aboard one of the jets taking off this morning, we most likely wouldn't know until it was too late. If we can screen every traveler's shoes, coats and bags, we can also screen the cargo that is riding on the plane with them."

"Huge trouble can come in small packages," Weiner added. "All packages, no matter how big or small, should be given the utmost scrutiny before being loaded onto an aircraft."

"Over the last weeks, we have been focused on the Dubai Ports World deal and the lack of screening of cargo transported on ships entering our ports," Maloney said. "While it appears that this deal has been stopped, we must not stop the conversation our nation is having about cargo security and we must broaden this discussion to include cargo that is left uninspected in the belly of commercial aircraft."

H.R. 4373, the Safe Skies Cargo Inspection Act, was introduced by Congressmember Ed Markey from Massachusetts, but passage has for now

been blocked by the Republican leadership in Congress. The legislation will direct the Department of Homeland Security to establish a system to inspect cargo transported on passenger aircraft, requiring that 100 percent of cargo is screened by 2008. According to this bill, 35 percent (one-third) of cargo must be inspected by the end of Fiscal Year 2006, 65 percent (two-thirds) of cargo by the end of Fiscal Year 2007, and 100 percent of cargo by the end of Fiscal Year 2008.

At an event yesterday, April 4, to express their support for the Safe Skies Act, Maloney and Weiner were joined by the Association of Flight Attendants and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers' Association.

Currently, airlines check packages through their "Known Shipper" program, which simply means that if a business has shipped more than 24 times since Sept. 1, 1999 on the same carrier, their cargo can be included in passenger planes without screening. In September 2003, an employee of a Known Shipper exploited the program to ship himself from New York to Texas.

The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) has conceded that it hasn't audited most of the known shippers in its database. Packages weighing less than 16 ounces are not subject to the Known Shipper program, despite the fact that the bomb that brought down Pan-Am Flight 103 contained less than 16 ounces of explosives.

Examples of the dangers presented by unscreened cargo include:

+ In 1988, terrorists placed about a dozen ounces of plastique explosive inside unscreened baggage aboard Pan Am Flight 103. That flight exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone on board and almost a dozen people on the ground.

+ In 1985, Air India flight 182 was blown up off the coast of Ireland by a bomb placed in unscreened luggage.

+ In 1979, a bomb hidden in an unscreened package sent through the mail exploded on American Airlines flight 444, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing at Dulles Airport. The bomb was later linked to the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.

Air cargo is routinely inspected in Israel, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. "We know cargo screening equipment is available-technology companies already are ready to deliver cargo screening devices to their clients, including to foreign governments," Maloney added. "We know al Qaeda is looking for new ways to circumvent the enhanced airport security measures put in place after 9/11. We need to act now to close the cargo loophole."