Logan International Airport became the first major United States airport to electronically screen air cargo Oct. 14 when the Massachusetts Port Authority began running a test security program to examine the technology’s effectiveness.
‘Since Sept. 11, Logan Airport has been a national leader in developing and implementing strategies to thwart terrorism,’ said Rep. Edward Markey (D-Medford), a senior member of the U.S. House Select Committee on Homeland Security, in a press release Oct. 14. Markey introduced an act requiring the Transportation Security Administration to screen and inspect air cargo carried on passenger planes.
‘A lot of the cargo being screened is mail, which includes everything from swordfish to paperback books,’ said MassPort official Jose Juves.
MassPort has worked to make Logan the first airport to have an in-line, 100 percent bag screening system and an anti-terrorism unit armed with submachine guns and handheld wireless computers. It also was the first to apply behavior profiling to identify potential terrorists, MassPort spokeswoman and Boston University College of Communication graduate Barbara Platt said.
Juves said electronic screening is ‘the next logical step because we’ve already taken care of passenger screening.’
‘By being a national test site for new systems and technologies, we ensure that Logan passengers get the very best in security,’ MassPort CEO Craig P. Coy said in a statement. ‘MassPort will remain on the cutting edge of security innovation.’
The test period started Oct. 14 and will run approximately 30 days. Trucks loaded with passenger aircraft-bound cargo will be scanned with L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems’ ‘state-of-the-art x-ray cargo scanning equipment,’ according to a press release.
‘This is an important step to establishing a match between screening technologies and airport operations to address a threat to security that must be closed,’ L-3 CSDS president Joseph S. Paresi said of the new technologies.
Travelers said they feel Logan is taking an appropriate step in ensuring passenger safety.
‘They saw a loop-hole,’ COM sophomore Rachel Baker said. ‘I don’t think any system is perfect, but at least they’re making a gallant effort to make it better.’
Baker said she thinks Logan Airport has strict security, but said she generally feels safe because of it.
‘One time they made me unwrap a present, which was just ridiculous,’ Baker said. ‘What am I going to hide in a present? They ruined the nice wrapping.’
Other students remain unimpressed by Logan’s airport security.
‘I’m not some raving lunatic,’ College of Engineering junior Todd Etzel said. ‘But if I wanted to get something in there, I could.’
‘At Logan there’s a dinky little thing at the back of the terminal,’ said COM junior and Colorado resident Natalie Rhodes of the airport’s infrastructure. ‘DIA [Denver International Airport] is very impressive. It’s pretty safe.’
‘They should’ve done something before now. I’m surprised that they haven’t been scanning cargo,’ Etzel said. ‘They should’ve changed it after the Pan-Am bombing.’
The cargo screening program is intended only to determine the feasibility of air cargo security scanning and is not intended to be a permanent security procedure at this time, according to the press release.
‘If they started screening cargo sooner they probably would’ve picked up that guy who mailed himself across the country,’ College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Sara Louis said. ‘Screening cargo can make the process more effective and it can pick up things that humans might overlook.’
‘I’m all for it,’ Etzel said. ‘When people don’t question trends, bad things happen.’