I used to work at the airport. I used to x-ray your baggage. I used to ensure your safety. You know nothing about me.The 6,000 body bags requested by New York’s mayor, Rudy Giuliani could have possibly been avoided. If airports had better security measures, these tragic terrorist acts may not have occurred.

When I first conceived the idea for this piece, it was the day before the attack on our nation. I have envisioned writing about the laxity of the FAA and other involved parties for quite some time now.

Last semester, a friend and I took a job at Greensboro’s Piedmont Triad
International Airport as pre-board screeners. Our job was to scan baggage and identify possible threats. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

The training session for this position lasts 8 hours. During the training, we were presented with many different props: a gun, a grenade, a pipe bomb, dynamite bombs, and many others. This supposedly teaches one how to identify these things by sight.

The opaques are introduced next. An “opaque” is a term used to describe anything under which something could be concealed. The training opaques are made of a lead material.

Later, the videos begin. I was asked to watch a series of x-ray pictures and classify them into one of three categories: no threat, possible threat, or obvious threat. I did such with approximately 200 pictures.

The trainer also shows videos detailing ways that bombs are made and their components. This is done to get the trainee acclimated to separating these items from standard passenger things.

OOPS! Training’s over, time to go to work.

There are two security check points at the Greensboro Airport. The one on the north side is controlled by Continental, the check point on the south by U. S. Airways. The airlines are responsible for keeping the x-ray machines, the metal detectors, and all other machines in working order. They are also responsible for providing security for the airport.

Both check points are equipped with two screens per baggage belt. One
screen is in black and white and scans for metal, and the other is in color and separates organic and non-organic materials.

U. S. Airways has the best machines in the airport. Located on the south end of the airport, both screens work well on both belts and the metal detectors are sensitive enough to pick up even belt buckles.

Continental is in charge of the machines at the north check point. Only two buttons work on the most used x-ray machine, making it difficult to be 100 percent certain. The metal detectors are just as bad; the only metal object they seem capable of picking up is a cell phone.

The security governing “checked” baggage is worse than carry-on. Checked baggage is x-rayed only at random. Most bags are just loaded from the belt directly to the airplane without a second glance.

In order to fulfill the hiring needs without the headaches of things like benefits, worker’s compensation and the like, the airlines contract out these services to security companies. The only responsibilities of these companies, companies like ITS (International Total Services) and Global, is to maintain a staff and to follow FAA rules and regulations.

ITS holds the contract at the Greensboro airport and pays its employees only $6.50 per hour during the week and $7.00 per hour on weekends. I have spoken to employees who have worked there for 3-5 years and they all tell me the same thing, “ITS doesn’t give raises.”

Many of these same employees have been caught sleeping on the job. Some have failed FAA tests while participating in arguments with coworkers and not paying attention to the screen. Still others have been rude to customers and in some cases even cursed at them.

ITS almost lost its contract with U. S. Airways over the summer due to
failing too many FAA tests. The FAA tests all of the nation’s airports on a regular basis. Greensboro gets hit at least once a month. The problem, however, is that everyone on the check point knows when the FAA is coming.

I don’t know who tells exactly, but I was always alerted ahead of time.
Another issue that the FAA faces is how to better test the screeners. All bombs do not look the same, but the FAA uses exact replicas of training pieces when attempting to pass through security. And just to make it worse, some recognizable agents even try to disguise themselves with wigs and other devices.

In order to avoid losing their contract, ITS sent out company trouble-shooters to access the situation and fix it. The company fired two duty managers and the general manager along with numerous employees.

When I was asked what I thought that the company should change in order to get better people, I told them that they needed to offer more money. I was told that this was a common complaint, but I knew how much the position paid when I signed on and if I didn’t like it I could always quit. I did.

The astounding facts are all here; it is no secret. The FAA knows all about it. It’s their fault as much as it is the fault of airline companies and security companies. Unfortunately it took tragedies like those in New York and Washington to expose the unreliability of a system that seemed to be only for show, giving passengers a false sense of security.

Even with the new tightened security regulations I don’t put a lot of faith into a program that was once so easily compromised.