Airport Security's Weak Link Being Improved by Embry-Riddle's Researchers

It's a big problem, but it's one that experts at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University are helping to resolve.

Detailed reports recently submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration by Embry-Riddle faculty researcher Gerry Gibb and a group of specialists outline the results of a three-year study on improving security screening at airports. The reports include the framework of a training program for pre-board screeners and their supervisors.

The problems identified by Gibb and his colleagues centered around the inability of many pre-board screeners to adequately monitor the electronic detection devices used at security checkpoints. Many of them failed to recognize guns, knives and other weapons that appeared on their x-ray screens. Poor communication between screeners and their supervisors - as well as between screeners and passengers - also generated problems, resulting in a high turnover rate among personnel, sometimes in excess of 100 percent a year at some airports. The team piloted their training program at Orlando International Airport because it is a large, international hub and, as a Category X airport, has high security requirements.

While security companies often had the most sophisticated detection devices and spent a lot of money on technical training, the researchers learned that "unfortunately they didn't train their supervisors to be effective managers," says Gibb. "They didn't know how to reward good performance or get team efforts out of their screeners." Nor did the screeners receive training in how to deal effectively with the public, Gibb's team discovered. "Many times a certain tone of voice or choice of words would inadvertently be the cause of arguments with passengers," he says. "It wasn't their fault. They simply weren't trained how to deal with people."

At Orlando, security performance was tested before and after introduction of the Embry-Riddle training program. Airport managers were pleased, and so was the FAA. During last summer's Olympic Games, the program was introduced to the Atlanta airport, as well as airports in Houston and Lynchburg, Virginia. Officials in the airport security business have expressed enthusiasm for the Embry-Riddle program.

"I felt it was well received by our personnel," says Sandra Parsley, national quality assurance manager for Globe Aviation Services, a firm in Irving, Tex., that hires and trains airport security screeners. She worked with Gibb's team in April, first in Washington, DC, with the participation of the FAA, and then at Houston International Airport, where she administered the training to the screeners herself. "We had very favorable comments from the screeners afterward," Parsley says. "It gave them a deeper understanding of how to deal with the public and their co-workers. Many felt that the skills they learned could be used in their own lives. It was one of the best programs of this type I've been associated with."

Not only does the training program increase the effectiveness of screeners and their supervisors, but it actually speeds up the screening process for passengers. "I've overheard pilots and passengers saying, 'Gee, security has really gotten tighter,'" Gibb says, "but that isn't the case. They've experienced the same amount of security as before. What they've noticed is it's more efficient."

"The results of the studies have been most encouraging, and there is no doubt that the program, in some iteration, will be instituted," says Robert Cammaroto, assistant manager of the FAA's civil aviation security policy and planning division. "It's a good piece of work and the FAA was well served by its association with Embry-Riddle."

Another project Embry-Riddle is conducting under an FAA grant concerns the testing and selection of individuals who have unique qualifications for certain types of security screening. For example, many people can correctly identify the x-ray profile of a handgun, but only when the handgun is at a 90-degree angle to the x-ray camera. Place it upside down and point it directly away from the camera, and most people would not be able to tell what it is.

"We're looking at the identification of people with special abilities," Gibb says. "People who are able to see and recognize objects in different orientations amidst a lot of clutter. People who can detect patterns within more complex designs." Surprisingly, some security companies do not test their employees for color blindness, according to Gibb. High-tech screening equipment often uses color monitors and software that assigns different colors to suspicious items.

One of the newest adaptations of technological wizardry in airport security is the introduction of computed tomography to baggage screening - known to most people as CAT scanning. It's the same technology used in hospitals to look deep inside the human body. But using it on luggage to find terrorist weapons is a very different sort of thing, according to Gibb, who is helping security companies test their personnel for this exacting work.

"A radiologist in a hospital knows what part of the human body he's looking at, and he knows what he's looking for," Gibb says. "A security screener, however, has no idea of what the next suitcase is going to bring."

This requires a special talent, he says. "I did very poorly with the machine. We were loading objects into the test bags, and I still had difficulty identifying them on the screen. I was baffled."

So what kind of person has what it takes to operate these sophisticated machines? "We're looking for people who can look at slices of information and be able to assemble a whole object from its parts," Gibb says, "and vice-versa - looking at the whole and imagining its component pieces."

These machines are used to scan checked baggage and are never seen by passengers. Two of them are in operation in Atlanta and one is at San Francisco's international airport. They cost nearly $1 million each, but President Clinton has requested funding to purchase a total of 54 to be placed in American airports. "The U.S. has 270 airports with security checkpoints and 19,000 individuals employed as security screeners," Gibb says. "That's more than in all of Europe."

In the months ahead, the biggest hurdle in improving airport security may be getting airport scanners - both high-tech and human - to work together. Gibb says Embry-Riddle is up to the challenge of developing solutions.

The world's largest university specializing in aviation and aerospace, Embry-Riddle has campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., and over 100 education centers in the U.S. and Europe. Its curriculum covers engineering, research, manufacturing, management, and marketing of modern aircraft and the systems that support them.