posted on September 12, 2001 08:33:27 AM
The horrible tragedy of yesterday certainly put my concerns about ebay management into perspetive. In fact, with them removing the WTC related auctions, they have earned a whole heap of new respect from me.
However, there are some real concerns about air travel that need to be answered. I have always seen the FAA, the airports and the airlines as very deficient in security.
Fact one: How come "FAA guidelines allow knives with blades up to 4 inches."?
Fact two: Boston's Logan Airport head of security Joseph Lawless said yesterday: "We are as secure, if not more secure, than any other airport in the US". This from the former state trooper and chauffeur for Governor Weld.
Massport and Logan Airports are political feifdoms, and we have paid a price for that.
But most chilling to me is the way the FAA and the airlines have handled security. The NTSB has made any number of recommendation as to improved safety for air travel. Time after time the FAA has proved itself to be the mouthpiece of the airlines, shooting them down as "too expensive."
One of the unfortunate facts about the Federal watchdogs is that all too often, the industries that are supposed to be regulated have their own people appointed hampering effective regulation. The fox is in the hen house.
Bottom Line? Here's how it plays out: the airlines are supposed to manage their own security operations, so what do they do? Put it out for bids. The cheapest bidder get the contact. The focus is now on cost not effectiveness.
In Boston Burns International Services and Hunteligh Corp have the American and United contracts.
They hire minimum wage, barely educated, severely undertained $6.50 an hour employees. Massport and its contractors are months or years behind in security checks. Because of the poor wages and morale, there is high turnover.
Massport even offers applicants jobs on the spot with no checking of references. In one case, a person hired to shuttle the handicapped around the terminal was placed suddenly in a security checkpoint with little preparation.
No wonder knives and guns get through.
But doing business this way results in high profits for the security company, relatively low cost security for the airlines (plus someone to blame!) It also got us yesterday's tragedy. I believe all four hijackings could have been prevented.
We have, as Pogo once said, met the enemy, and it is us.
It takes a major scandal to make a company do the right thing. Think cigarettes, think Firestone, think air travel.
I think we need to rethink the whole way transportation is operated and regulated in this country.
[ edited by litlux on Sep 12, 2001 08:51 AM ]
[ edited by litlux on Sep 12, 2001 08:56 AM ]
