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Cargo Screened In All Narrow-Body Aircraft

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By TED JACKOVICS

tjackovics@tampatrib.com

Published: November 12, 2008

TAMPA - More than seven years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, federal officials are closing a huge gap in commercial aviation security by screening all cargo carried in the bellies of narrow-body passenger airliners.

While the Transportation Security Administration has scrutinized checked baggage and carry-on items with increasingly sophisticated devices since 2001, air cargo shipments on passenger airliners have been a weak link in the security network.

Now, the TSA has phased in various methods of screening packages and other containers carried in air cargo holds on most flights at Tampa International Airport, St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport and elsewhere, a spokesman for the federal agency in Atlanta said Tuesday.

Nearly all passenger flights at Tampa Bay area airports are served by narrow-body airliners such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, while 90 percent of flights nationwide use narrow-body aircraft.

"It's 100 percent nationwide," TSA spokesman Jon Allen in Atlanta said about cargo screening on aircraft with a single aisle in the passenger cabin, unlike those designed with wide bodies and multiple aisles to accommodate more seats.

The smaller aircraft generally carry packages small enough to screen through conventional bomb-detection equipment.

Cargo on these aircraft is being screened by explosive detection systems, physical inspections, dogs and other methods, the TSA said. Those include allowing only verified shippers to place cargo on passenger aircraft.

At larger airports, cargo screening is a responsibility shared with the airlines, Allen said. At smaller airports, TSA screeners who screen checked baggage also check air cargo shipments.

Cargo screening of wide-body aircraft, such as the Boeing 747, is more complicated because the larger aircraft can carry large cargo containers.

Congress has mandated that 50 percent of all air cargo be screened by February and 100 percent by August 2010.

The TSA said Oct. 15 that it had reached compliance with the 50 percent mandate four months early.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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