Security At Local Airports Still Lacking

A month after the World Trade Center attack, city and state officials are insisting that the citys airports are safe again. Taking a flight from LaGuardia and JFK to anywhere in the world is safer today than ever before, officials insist.
But are they right? Are the skies really friendly again? If a recent visit to JFK Airport by The Queens Courier is any indication, the answer is a resounding no.In more than a dozen interviews at three different JFK terminals, passengers said that the new security setup is more appearance than substance. While check-in counters are slower, and airports are bursting with extra guards, city cops and even National Guard troops, passengers said that they were able to sail through security with little or no extra scrutiny. Most were not asked any additional questions at the security gates and few had their carry on bags searched, even haphazardly.
Jerry Sauber, after some consideration, bought three, three-foot-long Masai machetes while on a three-week pilgrimage to Africa with his wife Valerie, a former Glendale resident.
"I thought twice before buying them," Sauber said. "Because with everything thats been happening in the world, I thought there would be no way I would be able to get them on an airplane."
Much to his surprise, the deadly souvenirs made their way on the plane with no fuss from security.
Sauber not only checked the razor-sharp machetes on one flight without being stopped or at least questioned, but did so on more than 10 flights over the course of the three-week trip. Two of those flights were on a South African airline affiliated with Delta Airlines.
"The Masai use these weapons to hunt lions. Can you imagine what a terrorist could do to a human being with it?" the stunned traveler wondered. "We could have brought a tank on board these flights and nobody would have stopped us."
Yoko Ooka, 30, was surprised at the lax security when she dropped her mother off at a the United Airlines terminal for a flight to Japan.
"They didnt even ask her the normal questions about who packed her bag," said Ooka, an accountant at a Manhattan bank. "I thought that they would keep us at the security counter for much longer."
Jean Sorondo, another Manhattanite returning on a flight from Miami, complained that "they werent even really looking through peoples bags."
"Apart from all the police and National Guard soldiers, the airport seemed pretty much the way it always does," he said.
If appearances mean anything, both JFK and LaGuardia airports do look more heavily guarded than they used to. On a recent visit by The Queens Courier, soldiers guarded all the security gates, undercover police patrolled outside in unmarked vans and extra airport agents towed cars left unattended.
But inside, many passengers complained that despite showing up hours early for their flights, they were subject to only fleeting security checks.
"It has been a long travel day, thats for sure," said Florida resident Linda St. Pierre, finally at the front of a long line at Jet Blue Airlines. "I was at the airport more than two hours early for my flight, and my security check just took a couple of minutes. Now I just have to sit here and wait."
President George W. Bush has called for $500 million to bolster security in the air. He has also assigned federal marshalls and the National Guard to patrol the nations airports.The day-to-day operations of airport security, however, remains in the hands of private security firms that are monitored by the Federal Aviation Administration.
In the wake of the World Trade Center disaster, the FAA adopted new rules forbidding knives or other sharp objects in carry-on-luggage. But this weeks Couriers investigation, and one in the Daily News suggest that security is still a big problem.
FAA spokesman Jim Peters refused to comment on the security shortcomings at the Queens airports.
For some frightened travellers that answer is not good enough
"I had three huge machetes in my luggage and my wife had a Swiss Army Knife in her carry-on and nobody stopped us. The FAA and the airlines want us to think that there is security when in fact there is very little security at all."