by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
As of 4 a.m. today, Jacksonville International Airport will be well on its way to being federalized, becoming one of the few airports in the nation to meet the stringent guidelines set forth by Congress and the recently-created Transportation Security Administration in lieu of last year’s terrorist attacks.
In a formal gathering this morning, JIA officials announced Concourses A and B will be manned by federal employees instead of a private security firm. Next week, the airport will add Concourse A to the designation and join a list of about 150 airports across the country that have met federal standards regarding passenger security. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta was at JIA Monday evening to personally observe the new security personnel.
The TSA at JIA, headed locally by Federal Security Director Paul Hackenberry, was created by Congress last year shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One of TSA’s official charges was to see that the security at all 429 commercial airports in the United States was managed and manned by federal employees.
“The biggest issue was the employment of the screening workers that was a combination of the new and current employees,” said Hackenberry.
Prior to today, passenger screening at JIA was handled by Worldwide Security Associates Inc. The federalization process will combine several Worldwide employees with a work force hired and trained by the TSA. Hackenberry said that training included job assessment, testing, 40 hours of class work and 60 hours of on-the-job-training.
“The federalization process is actually just a shift change and took just several weeks,” said Hackenberry, adding that initially the passenger security work force will be new employees and several Worldwide employees will be brought on after they complete training.
Jacksonville Airport Authority Executive Director John Clark said he’s proud JIA has met the federal standards and anticipates a good working relationship with TSA officials.
“We are looking forward to participating with TSA in the press conference tomorrow [Tuesday] as they roll out Concourses B and C,” said Clark. “I congratulate Paul Hackenberry and the TSA and look forward to continuing to work with them.”
The designation actually comes with plenty of time to spare. The TSA established Dec. 31 as the deadline for the 429 commercial airports in the country to meet federal standards for passenger security and baggage checks. While most are expected to meet the passenger security deadline, baggage is another matter.
According to JIA Public Information Officer Michelle Branham, JIA is the pilot program for the latest and greatest in baggage security.
“We will have five, CTX9000 machines that are cat scan or X-ray machines that will check 100 percent of the bags that go in and out of JIA,” explained Branham. “They are explosive detection systems and they detect hazardous materials. We will be the only airport in the nation with 100 percent of the bags checked behind the scenes. Others will do it randomly and some airports will have their machines in the ticketing area. The machine is the size of a van.”
Branham said JIA expects to come fully online with the baggage screening process by mid-November. Other airports won’t come close to the deadline and are appealing to the TSA for an extension.
“A whole lot of them aren’t federalized yet,” said Branham. “There are 39, including LAX [Los Angeles], Atlanta, San Francisco, Denver, Kansas City, Tampa and Dallas-Ft. Worth. They are trying to get the deadline extended from Dec. 31 to April of next year.”
Branham explained that a matching device will be attached to travelers’ tickets and their bags. Should the CTX9000 detect something out of the ordinary, not only will it be easy to pull and check the bag, it will also be easy to find the owner of the bag and detain them until the matter is resolved. Branham admitted that no system is totally fool-proof, but the new machines are close.
“It will make it very difficult to get anything on a plane,” said Branham referring to both the bags that go into the belly of a plane and carry-on bags.