By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 11, 2006; C06

James Thomas Murphy, 81, a former FBI agent who oversaw airline security for the Federal Aviation Administration during a rash of hijackings in the 1970s, died of cancer June 3 at his home in Alexandria.

Although baggage inspection devices, air marshals and stringent criminal penalties were helpful, Mr. Murphy argued that the best way to stop would-be air pirates was to make the voluntary screening of passengers through metal detectors mandatory.

"I've had it with carry-on luggage," which hijackers were using to carry guns and weapons aboard aircraft, Mr. Murphy told David Phillips, author of "Skyjack: The Story of Air Piracy" (1973). "You can't explain to a rational person how a man with a gun can be allowed to get on a plane."

In that less security-conscious era, airlines advertised the convenience of carrying suitcases aboard flights. An increasing number of hijackings had prompted the FAA to advise airlines to install metal detectors and funnel passengers through them or to search and seal carry-on bags. Eastern Airlines, which had often been victimized, put the recommendation into practice in 1969. But many other airlines were loath to annoy customers with delays.

From 1968 to 1972, 364 hijackings took place worldwide, the U.S. Department of Transportation calculated, and some were violent. Mr. Murphy, the FAA's director of Air Transportation Security, implemented an emergency rule making passenger screening mandatory at the start of 1973.

"I would rather put up with that than find there is a man with a bomb in his case aboard," Mr. Murphy told Phillips. "Unlike most crimes, hijacking is a catastrophic tightrope we tread."

Born in Chicago, Mr. Murphy grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y., where he and his brother Jack were occasionally models for Norman Rockwell's paintings, his children said. He served in World War II as a bombardier with the Army Air Forces in the Pacific, where he flew 25 combat missions. After the war, he graduated from Fordham University and became a sportswriter. In 1951, he joined the FBI, serving as a special agent in Cleveland and Washington field offices before being assigned to the headquarters.

In 1958, Mr. Murphy was sent by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to Hollywood to serve as a technical adviser to the film "The FBI Story," which came out in 1959.

He left the FBI to join the FAA in 1963, serving as director of the office of compliance and security, then as deputy director of the metropolitan Washington airports. He became the air transportation security director in 1971 and was awarded the Department of Transportation's Secretary's Award for Outstanding Achievement. He also received the National Civil Service League Career Service Award for special achievement in 1974 for his efforts to deter hijackings.

An affable man who said he had the "Irish gift of blarney," Mr. Murphy also swore well, Phillips wrote, adding, "His epithets sound poetic rather than profane."

Both gifts probably came in handy in 1974, when he became the FAA's director of the metropolitan Washington airports and the growing suburban population began to complain bitterly about noisy planes and jets flying over their homes near Dulles International Airport and what was then called National Airport.

Mr. Murphy, while promising that quieter jets were replacing older, noisier ones, required planes approaching and departing National to fly over the middle of the Potomac River rather than over populated areas. He also ordered the installation of ground-level noise monitors to verify or debunk community complaints. "No kidding about it . . . planes do seem to favor or disfavor the Alexandria side," he concluded, adding later, "It's not an airline marketing technique to be identified as the noisiest airline."

He also oversaw the start of plans for an expansion of Dulles, a move viewed with trepidation by fans of the airport's original Eero Saarinen design. Striving to promote function over form, he said, "We look at Dulles as an airport with monumental qualities, not as a monument that also serves as an airport."

Mr. Murphy left the government in 1979 and worked for the Air Transport Association of America for 10 years, then became an aviation industry consultant for HNTB Corp. until 1994.

He was a Civil War buff and master of sports trivia. A resident of Alexandria since 1952, he became a Redskins season ticket holder in 1953.

His wife of 42 years, Joanne Hill Murphy, died in 1998.

Survivors include his wife of seven years, Elizabeth Scully Fagan Murphy of Alexandria; four children from his first marriage, Carolyn Murphy of Alexandria, Tom Murphy of Wayne, Pa., Paul Murphy of Alexandria and Jean Bailey of Carson City, Nev.; two stepchildren, Kate Fagan-Nelson of Normal, Ill., and John Fagan of Milwaukee; and 15 grandchildren.

According to his family, Mr. Murphy remained true to his commitment to never use a computer, play a video game, drink a light beer or wear a pair of bluejeans. His daughter Carolyn, who is an FBI agent, said that late in life, her father kept getting caught up in the latest version of the airport screening procedures he ardently championed 35 years ago.

"His name kept coming up on the no-fly list," she said. "Here he is, 80 years old, and he's being pulled out of line for additional screening. I told him there wasn't much he could do about it, except perhaps use his full name."