Word: inspectors
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...release passenger manifests within three hours of a crash. The deadline set by Congress: November 1993. The FAA failed to adhere to that timetable, blaming Congress for setting overly stringent standards and requiring complicated tests of the new technologies. But that same year--five full years after Lockerbie--the inspector general's office of the Department of Transportation released a report blasting the FAA's overall security program. It is the only such report that has been made public, and it makes for sobering reading...
...report states baldly that airport security was still "seriously flawed" and "not adequate" at the nation's riskiest airports, which include New York City's John F. Kennedy. While the FAA had rated the four airports visited by its inspectors as "good to very good," undercover agents from the inspector general's office reached dramatically different conclusions. In 15 out of 20 attempts to gain entry to supposedly secure areas, agents had little trouble: they got into aircraft-parking areas, baggage areas, and one agent managed to slip an unarmed hand grenade through a metal detector...
Little has changed since then. Although the FAA claimed in the wake of last week's crash that it has in fact implemented all 38 provisions of the 1990 act, the inspector general's office, under Mary Schiavo, who resigned this month, has just finished an updated and still classified study that uncovered many of the same security problems found last time around. This new report shows that undercover agents successfully breached security in 40% of their attempts. That's down from 75% and clearly an improvement, but not one that creates much assurance. "It's just...
...before last week's crash. A grim report released in March noted that air terrorism remains a grave concern, and that "terrorists were aware both of airport vulnerabilities and how existing security measures could be defeated." After being briefed last week on these concerns, including those raised by the inspector general's new report, Republican Senator Larry Pressler, chairman of the Senate transportation panel, was dismayed, and acknowledged that he was himself "nervous" about flying. "There's got to be an understanding that we need better airport security, that we're going to have to pay for it, and that...
...have joined what is turning into a low-flow-toilet revolt. In Maryland homeowners are picking up large-capacity models at yard sales. Affluent Angelenos are buying two toilets: a new 1.6-gal. low-flow for show and an old 3.5-gal. tank that they install after the building inspector leaves. "It's been my biggest call-back," says contractor David Leonard of Indianapolis, Indiana. One customer required seven trips to service a perpetually clogged low-flow. "I don't know what this guy eats," says Leonard, "but we keep having to plunge to get it to pass through...