Paying the Price for Safety

By JIM HALL
Published: February 23, 2005

Washington

THE Air Transport Association, the lobbying group for the United States airline industry, is loudly protesting legislation backed by the Bush administration to increase a security fee by $3 per flight, to $5.50. At the same time, some Republican leaders in Congress are saying that aviation security should once again be the responsibility of the private sector.

How soon we forget.

On Sept. 11, 2001, America paid a horrible price in part because of flaws in the aviation security system. Now we risk repeating some of the mistakes that led to 9/11.

As a member of the Gore Commission on Aviation Safety and Security in 1996 and 1997, I saw the airline industry lobby against security enhancements that might have prevented 9/11. That was the second time the airline industry fought the recommendations of a presidential commission on safety and security. In 1990, the industry resisted the recommendations of President George H. W. Bush's commission on aviation security and terrorism.

In the four years ending in 2000, the airline industry spent almost $70 million to lobby Congress. The industry fought legislation to match passengers with bags, for example, and to enhance security checks on airport personnel. Despite repeated warnings that airport security was dangerously lax and that airport screeners were underpaid, undertrained and performing poorly, the airline industry spent millions to maintain the status quo.

We cannot stop the airlines from taking away our pillows and peanuts. But we should not allow them to prevent changes that would make us safer. Arguing over how to adequately finance passenger security at the airports is especially pointless when so many serious security threats still exist.

The airline industry's opposition to the proposed security fee increase must not be lost in the ebb and flow of the day's news. The American people should demand an effective and comprehensively financed security system. After all, it is the airline industry's privilege to provide us with service. Along with that privilege comes a responsibility to keep us safe.

Despite the industry's claims to the contrary, several surveys - including some cited by the Department of Homeland Security - have shown that the typical airline passenger is willing to pay for effective security, whether through additional fees or taxes. The American taxpayer has already provided billions of dollars for safety measures at airports, and even more billions to bail out the airlines after 9/11.

The question, therefore, is not whether the American people will do their part, but whether the airline industry will live up to its responsibilities. Almost every time the industry has had an opportunity to assume responsibility for meaningful airport security, it has failed. And it has spent tens of millions in Washington to get its way. To allow the industry to prevail again on this issue, with the experience of a national tragedy behind us, would be inexcusable.


Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board from 1994 to 2001, is a consultant on transportation and safety issues.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/opinion/23hall.html

I only wish that Jim Hall were still the head of the NTSB. I believe he was the best chairman the U.S. ever had. It's good to see him exposing the Air Transport Association for this latest exercise in extremely poor judgement.

Barbara