Audit: Airport screening needs more risk study – The Associated Press
The government has installed high-tech passenger screening equipment at airports without fully measuring whether the technologies address the most serious risks to aviation, congressional auditors found.
Most of the decisions to introduce new passenger screening devices at airports have been based on threats described in intelligence reports. While this is important, the Government Accountability Office said these threats also need to be measured against how vulnerable air systems are to them and against the full consequences if the threat were successfully carried out.
The auditors said the Transportation Security Administration has not completed this full assessment of threat, vulnerability and consequences together. As a result, TSA cannot get a complete picture of the potential risk from any particular threat and it cannot be sure that its investments in screening devices address the greatest risks to aviation, the auditors said.
