GAO investigators find serious flaws in airport explosive detection

Published 17 March 2006

A couple of days ago we led with two stories about companies — Rapiscan and Sense Holdings — developing sophisticated explosive detection systems. These systems could not arrive soon enough. MSNBC yesterday reported that federal investigators recently were able to carry materials needed to make a home-made bomb powerful enough to blow a car’s trunk apart through security screening at twenty-one airports. In all twenty-one airports tested, the bomb materials were stopped by the machines, swabs, or screeners employed. Investigators deliberately triggered extra screenings of bags, but the materials were still not discovered.

Investigators for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted the tests between October 2005 and January 2006 at the request of Congress. The GAO project was rather thorough. First, investigators found recipes for home-made bombs from readily available public sources such as the Internet and public libraries; second, the investigators bought the necessary chemicals and other materials over the counter; then the investigators carried these materials on board in knapsacks, attach” cases, and other normal carrying gear. Once on board, there was nothing to stop the investigators from assembling the bombs during a five-minute visit to the lavatory. Leo West, a former FBI bomb expert, told MSNBC that an explosion produced by the smuggled materials could potentially “lead to the destruction of the aircraft.”

As we reported throughout the fall, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) under the capable leadership of Kip Hawley now places priority on explosive detection: Hardened cockpit doors and other on-board security measures make it more difficult to hijack a plane, and experts say explosives now are the gravest threat posed by terrorists in the sky.

-read more in this MSNBC report