Word: faa
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...Carolina, in July 1994, the NTSB said the delay in installing the radar had cost the lives of 37 onboard. Charlotte was supposed to get the radar system in early 1993. As an airport in the South (where wind shear is particularly common), it was No. 5 on the FAA list. But the inevitable delays, red tape and land squabbles pushed Charlotte to No. 38, leaving the USAir pilots defenseless against the weather...
...learned that the FAA's abhorrence of action extended to airport security. Plainclothes agents from my office sneaked into some of the 19 busiest airports in the U.S. They wandered around in off-limits areas, seldom challenged by airport or airline employees. We saw other people milling about without proper identification, and they weren't stopped either...
...when I decided in 1995 that we should repeat our security audit, I expected that most of the more obvious breaches would prove to have been corrected. We decided to put particular emphasis on bomb detection this time. But I was bitterly disappointed: in 1995 my agents, together with FAA inspectors, carried fake bombs--strapped to their bodies or in briefcases with marzipan candy or other substances arrayed on boards to look like plastic explosives--and guns and knives through metal detectors. They got into secure areas at the big international airports around the country. They were not stopped...
Early in the summer of 1996, I gathered up the final report on airport security and headed toward the FAA administrator's office. I wasn't looking forward to this meeting. The FAA didn't like me, and had never liked my reports, and if I had missed that message, a fresh signal had just been sent. Secretary Pena had been scheduled to come to this meeting. But then his office must have discovered that the latest airport report was not substantially different from the 1993 study. So he bowed out. The message seemed clear. The Secretary was seeking Washington...
Hinson's demeanor was familiar: he was his usual easygoing self. I expected the FAA staff and the Secretary's underlings not to like our findings, but I wasn't prepared for the real point of our meeting: they wanted me to bury the report. The Olympic Games were opening in Atlanta that month. The investigation might have miserable results, but "the threat is low," they kept repeating. What good would it do to upset the public and generate a lot of negative publicity right before the Olympics? I couldn't say an attack was imminent. Still, I knew that...