Carry-On Luggage Poses Ongoing Risk of Attacks

Federal Officials Say Findings Should Not Shake Public's Confidence in Flying

Allowing carry-on luggage aboard U.S. airliners poses an ongoing, increased risk of terrorist attacks, government investigators told Congress today, but federal security officials said findings in a new report should not shake the public's confidence in flying America's skies.

Gregory D. Kutz, an official of the Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigative arm, said existing procedures at U.S. airport screening checkpoints failed to stop investigators from successfully smuggling bomb components that could have caused "severe damage" to airplanes several times this year at 19 airports tested.

"Our work clearly shows the increased security risk of the current policies of allowing substantial carry-on luggage aboard aircraft," Kutz said.

GAO testers carried low-yield detonators, explosives and incendiary devices purchased for less than $150 on their persons or in their bags, and exploited weaknesses in publicly advertised policies by the Transportation Security Administration. Investigators succeeded despite measures imposed after authorities disrupted a Britain-based plot in August 2006 to blow up transatlantic flights with liquid explosives. Those measures included prohibiting liquids, gels or aerosol items from passengers' carry-on luggage, except in containers smaller than 3.4 fluid ounces held in a clear, one-quart plastic bag.

GAO officials declined to say how many airports were breached or how, but they said that given the degree of success, they were confident that they could have penetrated other airports.

"Under the pat-downs that TSA implements now, they would not have been caught. That needs to be changed," said John W. Cooney, Kutz' assistant.

TSA Administrator Kip Hawley minimized the threat posed by GAO's homemade bombs, which were developed with a national laboratory and Washington-area law enforcement agency and videotaped blowing open a test car trunk and door.

Hawley said TSA is oriented toward defeating attacks powerful enough to down airliners. He identified 19 layers of steps the government has developed -- including keeping terrorists out of the country and off airplanes, spotting suspicious behavior at airports and adding law enforcement agents to airports and planes, for example -- to lessen the threat of the compromise of a single line of defense.

"The American public can be confident traveling with the security system in place," Hawley said.

"We can't be squeamish and say, 'Oh my goodness, they brought some firecrackers through and put it in the trunk of a car.' We need to stop all things, but we have to focus on what truly does us harm," Hawley said. "I mean, my pen can do 'severe damage,' " Hawley's defense did not placate lawmakers on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which cited reports of similar security lapses over two years. TSA spends about $5 billion a year on aviation security, and projected last year that it would cost $50 billion to deploy its preferred screening solution at 250 airports, before slashing its estimate to $8 billion.

Members also complained that TSA spent only about $50 million of $107 million provided by Congress last fiscal year for checkpoint explosives detection and emerging technologies.

Hawley said TSA expects to deploy 750 new X-ray scanners in 2007 and 2008, enough to cover about one-quarter of the lanes at 500 checkpoints.

David Castleveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the airline trade association, said companies want to ensure high levels of security but it is unrealistic to expect passengers to travel without a carry-on bag, and even more unrealistic to expect each one to be searched, given record traffic and limited airport space.

"We're trying to reduce delays, not increase them," he said.