Transportation Security Administration

WASHINGTON - Commercial air travel is at risk from terrorists who quietly get jobs at airports so that they can attack sensitive areas from within, a senior Homeland Security Department official told lawmakers. There has never been such an incident, but a security supervisor at Newark Liberty Airport is facing criminal charges that nearly 20 years ago he took the identity of a New York man who was later killed. This case raised questions of whether the Transportation Security Administration knows the true identities of those who work in airports.

WASHINGTON - Commercial air travel is at risk from terrorists who quietly get jobs at airports so that they can attack sensitive areas from within, a senior Homeland Security Department official told lawmakers. There has never been such an incident, but a security supervisor at Newark Liberty Airport is facing criminal charges that nearly 20 years ago he took the identity of a New York man who was later killed. This case raised questions of whether the Transportation Security Administration knows the true identities of those who work in airports.

Lockheed Martin Corp. said Thursday it won two regional orders for a combined $72 million to help the U.S. government set up new passenger-screening equipment at about 300 airports. The orders from the Transportation Security Administration will cover airports in eastern and central states. The company said work had begun in the East. The TSA plans to install so-called advanced imaging technology systems and to upgrade software. The orders are one-year deals with one option year.

WICHITA, Kan. - The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport said Wednesday that the child was forced to undergo a pat-down after hugging her, with security agents yelling and calling the crying girl an uncooperative suspect. The incident has been garnering increasing media and online attention since the child's mother, Michelle Brademeyer of Montana, detailed the ordeal in a public Facebook post last week. The Transportation Security Administration is defending its agents, despite new procedures aimed at reducing pat-downs of...

WASHINGTON -- A secret government plan to protect the nation's transportation systems from terrorist attacks will be shared with the people who run the systems, the Bush administration said yesterday. Congress ordered the plan because of concern that the security of people who ride buses, trains, and subways was taking a back seat to that of airline passengers. Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley said a classified version of the plan would be shared with people who own and operate transportation systems and that an unclassified version would be made available.

Authorities are trying to determine how a stun gun got aboard a JetBlue plane that landed at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport. The crew was cleaning up around 10:20 p.m. Friday after the flight arrived from Boston and found the stun gun tucked into the back of a seat. Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman says it’s not clear who the weapon belonged to or how it got on the plane. Coleman says there’s no indication the weapon had been fired. Port Authority police turned the stun gun over to the Transportation Security Administration.

HONOLULU — The Transportation Security Administration said Friday it plans to fire 36 workers, including two high-ranking officials, and has suspended 12 others after an investigation found they did not properly screen baggage at Honolulu International Airport. “This is the single largest personnel action at one time for misconduct in our agency’s history,’’ said TSA spokesman Nico Melendez. The 36 employees were placed on paid administrative leave yesterday, Melendez said.

WASHINGTON -- Answering criticism about security gaps at US seaports, the Bush administration said yesterday that it will conduct background checks on an estimated 400,000 port workers to ensure they do not pose a terrorist threat. Names of employees who work in the most sensitive areas of ports will be matched against government terror watch lists and immigration databases, said Michael Chertoff, the secretary of Homeland Security. The department will also issue tamper-resistant identification cards to about 750,000 workers, including truckers and rail...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky couple said yesterday they want the Transportation Security Administration to change how it screens children after their daughter, 6, was frisked at the New Orleans airport. Selena Drexel told ABC’s “Good Morning America’’ the family was returning home from a vacation earlier this month when their daughter Anna was selected for a pat down. The couple posted a video of the search on YouTube. It showed a TSA agent patting down the child and explaining the procedure to the girl and her parents.

WASHINGTON -- Airline passengers who buy a pre-approved security pass could have their credit histories and property records examined as part of the government's plan to turn over the Registered Traveler program to private companies. In announcing the new plan yesterday, the Transportation Security Administration said the Registered Traveler card would allow frequent fliers to go through airport security lines more quickly if they pay a fee, pass a government background check, and submit 10 fingerprints.

NEW YORK - Security screeners at Kennedy Airport violated procedures this fall when they asked two elderly women to show medical devices concealed beneath their clothing, Homeland Security officials admitted in correspondence made public this week. In letters to US Senator Charles Schumer and state Senator Michael Gianaris, Transportation Security Administration Administrator John Pistole and Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Betsy Markey said screeners at the airport will get refresher training on how to handle passengers...

Lockheed Martin Corp. said Thursday it won two regional orders for a combined $72 million to help the U.S. government set up new passenger-screening equipment at about 300 airports. The orders from the Transportation Security Administration will cover airports in eastern and central states. The company said work had begun in the East. The TSA plans to install so-called advanced imaging technology systems and to upgrade software. The orders are one-year deals with one option year.

Authorities are trying to determine how a stun gun got aboard a JetBlue plane that landed at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport. The crew was cleaning up around 10:20 p.m. Friday after the flight arrived from Boston and found the stun gun tucked into the back of a seat. Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman says it’s not clear who the weapon belonged to or how it got on the plane. Coleman says there’s no indication the weapon had been fired. Port Authority police turned the stun gun over to the Transportation Security Administration.

HONOLULU — The Transportation Security Administration said Friday it plans to fire 36 workers, including two high-ranking officials, and has suspended 12 others after an investigation found they did not properly screen baggage at Honolulu International Airport. “This is the single largest personnel action at one time for misconduct in our agency’s history,’’ said TSA spokesman Nico Melendez. The 36 employees were placed on paid administrative leave yesterday, Melendez said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky couple said yesterday they want the Transportation Security Administration to change how it screens children after their daughter, 6, was frisked at the New Orleans airport. Selena Drexel told ABC’s “Good Morning America’’ the family was returning home from a vacation earlier this month when their daughter Anna was selected for a pat down. The couple posted a video of the search on YouTube. It showed a TSA agent patting down the child and explaining the procedure to the girl and her parents.

WASHINGTON — Cabinet secretaries, top congressional leaders, and an exclusive group of senior US officials are exempt from toughened airport screening procedures when they fly commercially with government-approved federal security details. Aviation security officials would not name those who can skip the controversial screening, but other officials said those VIPs range from such top officials as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and FBI Director Robert Mueller to congressional leaders such as incoming House Speaker John Boehner, who avoided security before a recent flight...

WASHINGTON -- Private aviation returned to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport yesterday, more than four years after restrictions were imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The first aircraft arrived at the airport across the Potomac River in Arlington, Va., from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey about 7 a.m. and taxied through a water arch formed by two firetrucks. The flight was permitted after the Transportation Security Administration introduced rigorous new rules that require passengers and crew members to undergo background checks.

WASHINGTON - Hand sanitizer makes it through security in one airport, then it's confiscated at another. Screening lines back up because only two of six lanes are open. And then there's the occasional all-too-intimate pat down. Those complaints and other frustrations make the nation's airport security agency about as popular as the IRS. Indeed, only the Federal Emergency Management Agency, still suffering from its mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, ranks below the Transportation Security Administration among the least-liked federal agencies, according to a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll.