I have no plans to fly in the future. Not because I don't want to be hassled by the TSA, but because they do such a lousy job!
Unchecked intrusion at Pittsburgh International Airport baffles police
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
By Jonathan D. Silver and Mark Belko, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
The head of security at Pittsburgh International Airport said yesterday he was extremely alarmed that a man was able to sneak through a baggage area and board an empty passenger jet undetected, and he promised a sweeping review of the airport's security measures.
"I view it as very significant," Robert Blose, who is in charge of airport security for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, said of the incident. "It raises tremendous alarms for me and, obviously, I'm extremely upset about it."
Luis Esquivel, a 21-year-old man from San Antonio, Texas, with a history of schizophrenia, remains in the Allegheny County Jail on numerous charges following the incident late Friday night.
Esquivel told investigators he was able to breach security by ducking behind a ticket counter when no one was looking. He said he then crawled along a luggage conveyer belt and pried open a door leading to the bowels of the baggage system.
From there, Esquivel says, he commandeered an unlocked United Airlines van with the keys in the ashtray and drove it through the airport's underground baggage area until he emerged onto the airfield.
Esquivel recounted that he drove a half-mile and parked near the first plane he saw, a 50-seat regional jet operated by American Eagle. Around midnight, he hoisted himself up to the enclosed walkway leading from the terminal to the plane and from there reached about four feet over to the unlocked airplane door and let himself in.
Allegheny County Police arrested Esquivel Saturday morning after a flight attendant discovered him around 5:30 a.m. snoozing in the passenger cabin.
Later that day, county police Lt. Robert Downey Jr. and two detectives took Esquivel on a tour of the airport so the suspect could reconstruct his movements. Although Downey said Esquivel's explanation seemed credible, Blose said airport officials were still checking another story that Esquivel gave to authorities. In that scenario, Esquivel claims he climbed over a wall and a plexiglas barrier in the baggage drop-off area of the Landside Building to gain access to the airfield.
Blose, who had not seen the county police report on the incident, said the TSA also was doing its own investigation.
Blose said his perception is that a "pre 9/11 cavalier attitude still exists with many people, and that has to be eradicated. That can't exist in this environment. It just can't."
Esquivel's mother, Maria, said Esquivel suffers from schizophrenia. On May 17, she said, he disappeared from a boarding home in San Antonio where he had been staying for several months.
"The past week was like hell, pardon the expression. Not knowing where he was or knowing whether he was OK or anything," she said yesterday. "He's been off of his medication for the past week, so that might explain some of his erratic behavior."
Police do not believe Esquivel had any malicious intentions. Downey said Esquivel claimed he wanted to fly a plane to St. Louis. After Esquivel was led off American Airlines Flight 4114, the plane was checked and cleared for departure to Chicago.
Teddy Xidas, local president of Pittsburgh Local 40 of the Association of Flight Attendants, called the breach of security a "big concern."
"There should be nobody on that airplane," except for, perhaps, a cleaner or caterer, Xidas said. "It would be shocking, actually. It would be scary because you don't know why they're on there."
Esquivel's odyssey first took him from San Antonio to Los Angeles. Last Wednesday he bought a ticket on US Airways to Pittsburgh. He paid cash and carried nothing but a few compact discs. Esquivel told police here that authorities in Los Angeles did not question him even though he paid for his ticket in cash and had no luggage.
"That's always the sign of a drug courier," Downey said. "He said nobody bothered him."
Esquivel left Los Angeles at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday and arrived in Pittsburgh around 5 or 6 the next morning. That night, he stayed at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. He checked out at 4 p.m. Friday.
Two hours later, Downey said, county police were called to the Hyatt's restaurant for a customer -- apparently Esquivel -- who left without paying his bill. The restaurant did not want to press charges, so police dropped the matter.
Police do not know when Esquivel got to the airport, but surveillance cameras picked him up at the ticket counters in the Landside Building at 11:15 p.m. By that hour, Downey said, half the terminal was still operational. But the other half, which is home to the ticket counters of numerous other airlines, had closed around 8:30 p.m.
Airport video shows Esquivel heading to the inactive ticketing area just five minutes after a county police officer on patrol walked by.
Downey said Esquivel ducked behind a counter -- he did not know which airline's -- and crawled along the conveyer belt. He passed under the dangling rubber strips and through the hole in the wall until he came to a baggage door.
That door is supposed to be automatically locked when the belts are shut off, but Esquivel told police he pried it open and squeezed into the 3-by-3-foot space.
Downey said county police are not sure which door Esquivel managed to pry open, but Blose said that TSA inspectors had identified the door and had a "hefty" screener try to open it. He was unable to budge it.
Blose said it is each airline's responsibility to secure doors to the baggage area when not in use.
Downey said Esquivel crawled about 100 feet down the conveyer belt into what is known as the baggage matrix, a maze of conveyer belts that all converge beneath the Landside Building.
After dropping about 10 feet from the belt to the ground, Esquivel was picked up by a security camera walking past a door at 11:50 p.m. Out of camera range, he apparently got into the United Airlines van and drove through a short tunnel and up a ramp to the airfield, Downey said.
Blose said he already has ordered all unattended vehicles in secured areas of the airport to be locked and the keys removed. If a vehicle can't be secured with a key, Blose said, he's advising the owner to purchase a cable lock so it's "not available to anyone to go joy-riding in."
Lisa Bailey, manager of communications for American Eagle, said the airline was in compliance with federal rules regarding airplanes parked at gates.
She said such jets must have their doors closed and must be disengaged from the jet bridge. She said there is no need for the doors to be locked.
Last weekend's incident was the second in six months in which someone without authorized access was able to enter a secured area of the airport. In December, a Robinson businessman without the required boarding pass was able to enter the restricted boarding terminal to see off his brother by flashing an old constable's badge he was given as a gift.
http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030528airport0528p2.asp
I used to work security at government licensed nuclear plants. The utilities put out millions and in the end those measure really didn't make facilities safer. It wasn't the public who was the problem, it was employees. Screening all potential employees for psychological problems before hiring prevented problems from developing. For it is the insider working at a facility who is actually the biggest threat to safety.
In the case of airports, who is it we are fearful will kill us? Our fellow travelers. And of course you've realized that the airlines are having a wretched time financially since 9-11. Few people, yours truly included, want to fly nowadays. It's impossible to screen travelers carefully and thoroughly in a timely manner and still not bankrupt the airlines.
I have no plans to fly in the future. Not because I don't want to be hassled by the TSA, but because they do such a lousy job!