Raising Cane
By Rob Perez
Small airports show
alarming security gapsHe was twentysomething, traveling on a one-way ticket, carrying a large duffel bag.
At the Honolulu Airport, he would've been subject to fairly stringent screening procedures before boarding a plane.
But at Maui's Kapalua airport, a tiny general aviation facility with only one waiting room for passengers, screening was nonexistent.
The Moanalua resident, along with other passengers, boarded the 37-seat turboprop plane on a recent weekend without so much as a look-see from a security guard.
There was no metal detector to walk through. No X-ray machine for the carry-on bags. No manual searches. No checking to make sure only ticketed passengers entered the waiting area.
Anybody could have entered the room. And as long as you had a boarding pass, you could have walked onto the plane with box cutters, knives, guns, explosives -- whatever could be concealed in the bag.
No one would have known. No one would have stopped you.
The Moanalua man was amazed at the complete absence of security precautions, particularly given the heightened measures implemented at other airports locally and nationally since last year's 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"There was not one single security measure I had to pass through," he said, asking that his name not be used. "It was as easy as getting into my car. I might have not thought about how lax the security was a couple years ago, but in this day and age, I was shocked."
In this day and age, the Kapaluas of the nation are among the weak links in the U.S. civil aviation security network.
Tiny airports served by aircraft weighing less than 95,000 pounds are not required to screen passengers and carry-on baggage.
So when Island Air, affiliate to Aloha Airlines, flies its DeHavilland Dash-8 turboprop planes, which have a takeoff weight of roughly 35,000 pounds, from Kapalua to Honolulu five times daily or from Molokai to Honolulu nine times daily or from Lanai to Honolulu six times daily, the federal government requires no screening.
At least not yet.
The newly formed Transportation Security Administration, which recently assumed responsibility for the nation's airport security, plans to develop screening requirements for the smaller aircraft, according to Greg Warren, an agency spokesman in Washington, D.C.
But the government has set no timetable for developing those rules, Warren said.
"We're looking at what could happen and what kind of regulations need to be put in place," he said.
Immediately after the terrorist attacks, Island Air at its own expense starting screening passengers at the Kapalua, Molokai and Lanai airports, said Stu Glauberman, a company spokesman.
But the carrier later discontinued the practice because the federal government wouldn't pay for it, Glauberman said.
Island Air passengers going in the other direction -- from Honolulu to Kapalua, Molokai or Lanai -- are screened as part of an agreement between the TSA, state Department of Transportation and the airline, according to Sydney Hayakawa, who oversees the TSA on Oahu. The screening is not mandatory, but the parties agreed to do it anyway, he said.
Hawaiian Airlines passengers flying from Honolulu to the same airports on Molokai and Lanai must go through screening because Hawaiian serves those destinations with jets, which meet the weight thresholds in the security regulations.
Hawaiian doesn't serve Kapalua.
When Hawaiian passengers return via Molokai and Lanai, they also must go through security checks -- even though the Island Air passengers leaving from the same airports are not required to do so.
How much sense does that make?
As the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks nears, people will be reminded of the devastation wrought by 19 thugs who hijacked four jetliners on Sept. 11 and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.
For some, the anniversary coverage will underscore the need to shore up gaps -- like those found in Kapalua, Molokai and Lanai -- in the country's aviation security.
The concern is that terrorists will try to exploit such vulnerabilities.
Said the Moanalua resident, "It's the small details, the loopholes and weaknesses in the system that the bad guys will find."
The feds would be wise to fill those gaps as soon as possible.
Star-Bulletin columnist Rob Perez writes on issues
and events affecting Hawaii. Fax 529-4750, or write to
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. He can also be reached
by e-mail at: rperez@starbulletin.com.
