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Tighter security surrounds airport workers

Two arrests in Orlando prompt an increase in random searches.

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published March 14, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Ken Helle] TIA employee Piotr Smeder is searched by Transportation Security Administration officer Andy Grubbs during a random search Tuesday.

TAMPA - Signs of a security crackdown were largely invisible to travelers at Tampa International Airport on Tuesday

Airport police with bomb-sniffing dogs were in plain view. But not the newly imported undercover air marshals and dozens of extra federal officers searching hundreds of employees behind the scenes.

The security "surge" at four Florida airports, sparked by arrests last week of two Orlando airport employees charged with smuggling 14 guns onto a plane to Puerto Rico, will end in a few days.

But it won't stop a roiling debate over airport policies that allow workers with ID badges to get into planes and secure areas without going through metal detectors.

The Transportation Security Administration already performed random checks of workers at 100 U.S. airports, including Tampa International. Officials say surprise inspections are enough to deter the bad guys.

Following last week's arrests, Capitol Hill critics renewed calls Tuesday to screen 900,000 airport employees nationwide the same as airline passengers.

"A temporary surge is not a solution to this security gap," said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who sponsored a bill last week to test full screening at five airports. "Nothing less than 100 percent screening of workers at all airports will close this loophole for good."

Under pressure from local members of Congress, Orlando International Airport and the TSA began screening all 16,000 employees Monday.

The airport may hire a private security firm, said airport spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell. Officials don't know the price, but a similar screening program at Miami International costs about $5-million a year.

"Because we regard security as our No. 1 priority, we'll check our budget and make it happen," she said.

The incident last week was the kind of inside job that worries security experts. Two employees of commuter carrier Comair wore work clothes and used IDs to bypass passenger security March 5.

Zabdiel Santiago-Balaguer paid Thomas Anthony Munoz $4,000 or $5,000 to carry a duffel bag filled with guns and drugs onto Delta Flight 933 to San Juan, investigators told The Orlando Sentinel.

Acting on a tip, authorities pulled Santiago-Balaguer off the plane in Orlando. They didn't find any contraband in his bags.

But police in San Juan who arrested Munoz found him with 13 handguns, an assault rifle and eight pounds of marijuana. Santiago-Balaguer was arrested the next day. Both were fired by Comair.

Over the weekend, the TSA sent 160 officers to airports in Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and San Juan. About 30 came to Tampa International to beef up employee screening, said John Wheat, the deputy airport director.

Officers inspected airliner cargo holds and cabins before passengers boarded, checked ID badges and inspected trucks entering ramps. Undercover air marshals patrolled the terminals looking for suspicious activity, said Dario Compain, the airport's federal security chief.

Teams more than doubled the regular number of surprise inspections of employees as they came through doors to secure areas. In hundreds of inspections since Monday, they found no weapons or contraband more serious than a cigarette lighter, Compain said. He called the random searches a powerful deterrent.

"They don't know if we're behind door No. 1, door No. 2 or door No. 3," he said. "It's a continuous balancing act, so we surprise people with bad intentions."

Skycap Piotr Smeder didn't mind being delayed on his way to meet a customer with a wheelchair.

"If it has to be done, it has to be done," he said.

Most employees, however, don't feel that way, said Joey Pascarella, president of Local 2319 of the International Association of Machinists.

Many airline baggage handlers and ticket agents he represents need to go between secure and public areas several times a day. That means repeatedly taking off steel-toed shoes and giving up water bottles. Most are airline veterans and all have passed security background checks for IDs.

"They all hate it," says Pascarella, a baggage handler for Northwest Airlines. "We've worked the job for 30 years - we're not terrorists."

Information from the Orlando Sentinel was used in this report. Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.

[Last modified March 13, 2007, 23:15:04]