Security Hole at Phoenix Airport
The news:
We’ve discovered a 4.5 hour time frame each night when virtually anything can be brought into the secure side of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. There’s no metal detector, no X-ray machine, and it’s apparently not a problem.
Afraid to show her face, one long time Sky Harbor employee talks about the security most people don’t see.
Lisa Fletcher: “You’re telling me Sky Harbor’s not safe?”
Employee: “I’m telling you Sky Harbor’s not safe and hasn’t been for a long time.”
It’s what we discovered in the middle of the night—TSA agents going away, and security guards taking over. It’s 4.5 hours—every night—when an employee badge becomes an all-access pass.
I have mixed feelings about this story. On the one hand, it’s a big security hole that not everyone knew was there. On the other hand, airport employees are allowed to bring stuff in and out of airports without screening all the time. So yes, the airports aren’t secure—but they never have been, so what’s the big deal?
The real issue here is that people don’t understand that an airport is a complex system and that securing it means more than passenger screening.
Nicholas Weaver • August 2, 2007 12:04 PM
Not only is it a huge vulnerability, but it is a significant one that has never been really closed:
I wish you asked Kip Hawley the question of:
Why did the TSA for so long resist scanning all ground crew, when this vulnerability has been responsible for both the PSA flight 1771 crash in 1987 and the terrorist hijacking in Algeria? If you are going to do CYA security, I think this is a critical one.