Updated at 6:12 p.m. on October 29.
The discovery of suspicious packages originating in Yemen and carried aboard two United Parcel Service and FedEx flights bound for the United States fuels ongoing concerns about the Transportation Security Administration’s ability to screen packages on cargo planes.
While screening on passenger jets has been a subject of close scrutiny and even tighter regulations since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, cargo aircraft is not bound by the same mandate that requires TSA to screen 100 percent of packages aboard all passenger flights.
The agency announced in August that it met the mandate on all passenger flights originating in the United States. It is working to screen all cargo carried on passenger flights originating outside the U.S. – a more complicated issue that requires consultation with foreign airports and companies.
In June, the Government Accountability Office told Congress that TSA officials estimated that 55 percent of cargo bound for the United States aboard passenger planes from overseas was being screened – and their goal was to get that figure to 65 percent by August. Calls to TSA were not returned by press time.
With no mandate for cargo aircraft, the number of packages screened aboard these planes – both originating in the United States and abroad – is believed to be well under 100 percent. There also exist some inspection exemptions for screening certain types of cargo aboard cargo planes.
Under an agreement with Customs and Border Protection, shippers like FedEx and UPS screen their cargo to their own standards, leaving a wide range of options to determine the legitimacy of a package, a Capitol Hill source said. It differs widely from the screening process at a TSA security checkpoint for passenger aircraft.
CBP then receives a manifest as much as four hours before a flight lands in the United States if anything is suspicious or needs to be targeted for further inspection on a per-package basis.
Meanwhile, problems persist aboard passenger aircraft screening large palletized containers – an issue that extends to cargo aircraft as well, said Stephen Lord, GAO’s director of Homeland Security and Justice.
In a brief interview today, Lord said he expects the incident to prompt a debate on Capitol Hill about the screening of cargo flights. The mandate for passenger flights was outlined in the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007.
“This is a potential area of concern, and this may refocus Congress’s attention on this in the next session of Congress,” Lord said.
Indeed, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said on CNN today that the incident provides the United States with “another aperture into the thinking potentially of al-Qaida” in terms of how it would transport dangerous items into the United States.
“So, the truth is that we should probably look even more closely at this area to tighten up even more, if possible,” he added.
Sara Sorcher and Chris Strohm contributed
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