Logan's Baggage Screeners Defended Workers Unfairly Blamed, Company Supervisor Says

Logan's Baggage Screeners Defended Workers Unfairly Blamed, Company Supervisor Says

by Shelley Murphy
The Boston Globe
October 10, 2001

Although they've been treated like pariahs since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the baggage screeners who staffed the checkpoints at Logan Airport where one group of hijackers passed through have been cleared of wrongdoing by federal investigators and are being unfairly scape goated, their supervisor says.

"I could have had the United States Marines here on every checkpoint on the morning of the 11th and nothing would have changed," said Carter Bibbey, a manager for Globe Aviation Services Corp. who was supervising screeners at the American Airlines terminal as hijackers passed through the checkpoint and boarded Flight 11. Bibbey said there was no evidence that the hijackers smuggled any illegal weapons through airport security that day.

On the contrary, the hijackers are believed to have strolled onto American Flight 11 and United Flight 175 at Logan; American Flight 77 out of Dulles; and United Flight 93 out of Newark with razor-sharp boxcutters and knives measuring less than 4 inches in length, which were allowed on planes prior to Sept. 11 under Federal Aviation Administration guidelines.

"I am very confident that nothing got beyond this checkpoint that wasn't allowed," said Bibbey, who was one of 51 Globe Aviation employees working at the American Airlines terminal on Sept. 11. "There was no rush to put anybody through the checkpoints."

The FBI, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Massachusetts State Police have repeatedly interviewed many of the company's employees who were on duty the day of the attacks.

"Anybody who is Middle Eastern has been put through the wringer," said Boston lawyer Paul V. Kelly, who represents Globe Aviation. "Anybody with a Middle Eastern name, anybody who practices the Muslim faith, has been interviewed three or four times. Their files have been combed over. These people have handled it with a lot of dignity."

But the FBI has found no links between any of Globe Aviation's employees and the hijackers, according to company and law enforcement officials.

"Every single Globe employee has been investigated," said Bibbey, adding, "Not one has been relieved from their duties, not one has been found to be here illegally."

Still, the week after terrorists hijacked two planes out of Logan, a passenger on her way through an American Airlines checkpoint glared at the Globe Aviation employee screening her bag and sneered, "If you were doing your job last Tuesday those people would still be alive."

Since the Sept. 11 airplane attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, the low-paid screeners who search passengers and their carry-on bags for weapons or other contraband have been harshly criticized by the public and scrutinized by the FBI.

The five Globe Aviation screeners on duty during the time that five hijackers passed through the American Airlines main checkpoint at Terminal B didn't detect any weapons - either legal or illegal, according to Bibbey.

But after United Flight 93 out of Newark crashed in Pennsylvania later that day, the FBI recovered a knife at the crash scene that had been concealed inside a cigarette lighter, according to FBI officials. The FBI is investigating whether the knife belonged to one of the hijackers.

If the Boston hijackers were carrying knives concealed in cigarette lighters, they would have escaped notice because passengers were allowed to carry lighters on board prior to Sept. 11 and generally dumped them into a basket, along with keys and other items, before walking through metal detectors at the airport checkpoints, Bibbey said.

But even if the knives had been detected, they measured less than four inches and were allowed under FAA guidelines, he said.

"They brought things through the checkpoint that they knew they could carry on an airplane," Bibbey said.

A baggage handler for Globe Aviation and an American Airlines employee have told the FBI that one of the hijackers - believed to be either Wail or Waleed Alshehri - was carrying one wooden crutch under his arm when he boarded Flight 11, according to Bibbey.

Crutches are scanned through an X-ray machine, which would detect any hidden weapons, Bibbey said.

Globe Aviation, which is headquartered in Irving, Texas, and has 500 employees in Boston, including 178 working security for American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and the international carriers at Terminal E, has come under heavy scrutiny since Sept. 11.

Federal and airport officials have raised questions about the competency of the screeners, who are paid $8.25 an hour and have a high turnover rate. They receive 16 hours of classroom instruction and 40 hours of on-the-job training.

About 60 percent of the Globe security personnel at Logan are foreigners who hold work visas and come from various countries, including Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, and India.

Globe Aviation also handles security at the Portland, Maine, airport, where two of the hijackers arrived on a connecting flight before boarding Flight 11.

The FAA, Globe Aviation, and American Airlines all conduct random tests of screeners by passing weapons and other contraband through the checkpoints to see if they will be detected.

Employees who fail two FAA tests are fired and those who flunk three Globe Aviation tests, which are performed daily, are ordered to undergo more training or are fired, according to Bibbey.

Records provided by the company reveal that none of the five screeners on duty when the hijackers passed through the American checkpoint ever flunked an FAA test.

Four had never failed any other tests and one worker failed one Globe Aviation test by failing to detect a toy gun last June. Since then, she has passed all tests.

"These are hardworking people who come to work every day to do a job and they do a damn good job," Bibbey said. "They have been wrongly blamed. It was not their fault."

Predicting that uniformed officers carrying guns won't be any better equipped than his screeners at detecting, Bibbey said the government should invest in technology at airports that can scan faces and pinpoint suspected terrorists - much like what was done at last year's Super Bowl.

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