Gap seen in airport screening

WASHINGTON -- US airlines are vulnerable to the same kind of midair bombings that apparently blew up two Russian planes on Aug. 24 because most travelers are not screened for explosives, industry specialists and officials said yesterday.

Russian investigators said Monday that traces of hexogen -- an explosive often used by the military in various countries -- had been found in the wreckage of the flights, which crashed almost simultaneously last week, killing 90 people.

"Small amounts of this type of product could be very dangerous, especially in a pressurized airplane," said Jim Ludwiczak, head of US firm Blasting and Mining Consultants. "I wouldn't say it's hard to get hexogen. If you're involved anywhere with military-type explosives, you can get it."

But despite previous examples of militants seeking to blow up airplanes in midair -- such as "shoe bomber" Richard Reid and an Al Qaeda plot to bomb 12 US planes over the Pacific -- US airports are still not routinely checking passengers and their hand luggage for traces of explosives such as hexogen.

While all checked baggage must receive high-tech screening for explosives, specialists say passengers and carry-on items remain a gaping security loophole almost three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, despite random checks.

"Can you find most explosives with the primitive X-ray devices we've given to screeners? No," US Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the House aviation subcommittee, said at a hearing Friday.

Laura Graves, investor relations chief at InVision Technologies, which makes the machines that screen checked baggage at US airports, said their technology could detect all known explosives. "However, the US government currently doesn't require machines that check for such explosives on passengers and in their hand luggage," she said.

The Transportation Security Administration, which is in charge of aviation security, says it has pilot projects for walk-through explosive detection systems at four airports. A fifth airport will come online this month, and plans for 10 others are in the works.

However, none of the major hubs such as Chicago's O'Hare, John F. Kennedy in New York, or Los Angeles International Airport are included in the trial. There are 429 commercial airports in the United States.

The Sept. 11 commission, which investigated the attacks, said in its final report last month that the TSA and Congress "must give priority attention to improving the ability of screening checkpoints to detect explosives on passengers."

John Lehman, a former Navy secretary and member of the Sept. 11 commission, said at Friday's congressional hearing that explosives -- for example carried by a suicide bomber -- were a major danger to aviation, despite dramatic steps to heighten security and guard against another Sept. 11-style hijacking.

"It's a very real threat," he said. "We need to . . . make sure we have that covered as well as we have the other issues."

The House aviation subcommittee's Republican chairman, Representative John Mica of Florida, and DeFazio have repeatedly said the government was not moving fast enough to develop technology at airports to detect advanced explosives, which they say can be easily concealed.

Frank Cilluffo, a former security adviser to President Bush who is now at George Washington University, said that even with the pilot projects, there could be no quick fix because "going from the concept to a lasting capability obviously may take time."