DRUG FLIGHTS

Alarming Evidence Internal Security Needs Tightening

The nation has spent millions on increased airline security to protect air
travelers from hijackings or terrorist assaults. Luggage is X-rayed, and
carry-on bags are searched. Photo IDs are required. Every airline passenger
must pass through a metal detector at every commercial airport.

In Miami this week, a federal sting operation revealed the vulnerable
underbelly of airline security, netting dozens of American Airlines
employees on charges of smuggling drugs and firearms. For a price, the
employees smuggled firearms, drugs and virtually any other kind of
contraband onto jetliners.

In the course of the more than two-year investigation, agents found drugs
hidden in food service equipment, cargo holds and even in overhead
compartments inside the aircraft. Law enforcement agents watched as
employees repeatedly violated internal security rules to hide fake drugs,
dummy military-style grenades and inoperative high-powered firearms the
agents had given them as part of the sting.

If ever there were doubts about the corrupting influence of drugs and money,
this sting removes them.

The arrogance of the smuggling operation is a wake-up call for the airline
industry to tighten security practices. If security is so lax that corrupt
employees are able to hide anything on board for the right amount of money,
it is only a matter of time before a terrorist finds a worker willing to
plant a bomb aboard a plane.

The incident also is a broader reminder of the contaminating influence of
drugs in the workplace, from office suites to assembly plants to government
towers. Drugs or money has been at the root of this nation's most damaging
spy cases. Bank fraud from within is more insidious and damaging than armed
bank robbery. And nothing is as demoralizing to the thousands of
hard-working law enforcement officers than seeing a co-worker succumb to greed.

Curbing abuses of airline security and smuggling are mostly a matter of
diligence, putting into place and enforcing procedures that discourage it as
much as possible. The Miami problems seem to stem from a failure to enforce
security rules, such as allowing off-duty workers easy access to planes and
restricted areas.

For the safety of traveling passengers, the airlines must remember that
danger sometimes lurks inside the gate, as well.