U.S. still grappling with 100% air cargo screening
— -- More than a year after the deadline Congress set for screening all air cargo on passenger planes, the Transportation Security Administration still isn't checking all the cargo arriving aboard international flights.
The gap in screening increasingly alarms lawmakers because bombs have been smuggled aboard planes, including explosives found a year ago in printer cartridges heading for Chicago synagogues in two air shipments from Yemen.
"America's aviation system is at the top of the terrorist target list," says Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who wrote the law with the cargo-screening deadline. "TSA must close the gaping loophole that leaves billions of pounds of air cargo unscreened on passenger planes entering our country from overseas."
TSA Administrator John Pistole says all domestic cargo is being screened and that TSA is negotiating screening agreements with 20 countries that send 80% of the cargo heading to the USA.
"The question is: What can they practically do that doesn't put a halt to the global supply chain?" he says.
In 2007, Congress set a deadline of August 2010 to screen all cargo. But amid the complexity of dealing with other governments and their security systems, TSA missed the deadline for screening all in-bound international flights carrying 44% of that cargo. The agency set a goal of Dec. 31 for screening in-bound cargo, then alerted industry groups to an indefinite postponement.
Shipping companies and airlines warn that striving for 100% screening of cargo at airports will divert limited resources from hunting the most dangerous packages. The Yemen printer cartridges were screened and not caught — but were found through an intelligence tip.
Instead, business groups advocate a system of electronic documentation assuring that nobody tampered with cargo as it moved from manufacturer to shipper to aircraft. Companies would be certified for trustworthiness at each link in the supply chain.
"Physical screening of 100% of air cargo throughout the world is, I believe, impractical," says Tony Tyler, chief executive of the International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines. "Things do need to be screened at some point, but in the airport environment — you just can't do it."
The challenge of screening cargo is that different packages from different locations are lumped together in large containers before being loaded on a plane. That means screening the material before it gets lumped together — or tearing apart a container to check something suspicious. TSA hasn't certified equipment such as X-ray machines to screen whole containers yet.
"You can screen a load of bananas, but if you throw some sneakers in there, game over," says Brandon Fried, executive director of Airforwarders Association, a trade group for shippers. "This is a real-estate issue. There's not enough space at the airports to spread these boxes out and screen them individually."
Business groups such as the airlines and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warn that screening 100% of all cargo at airports is an unrealistic goal. The key is to identify trusted shippers — and then focus screening on suspicious packages.
But then there's the cost. TSA estimates it would cost $26.8 million over five years to run background checks on an estimated 650,000 shipping workers. The agency proposes to charge shippers $31 to $51 for each background check.
