March 2002, Sloan web site

Barnett says bag-match a vital step

The tragic events of Sept. 11 prompted tougher air safety legislation and strengthened transportation officials' resolve to implement explosive detection systems at airports nationwide.

But Sloan professor Arnold Barnett, a renowned aviation safety expert, says airlines should be doing more.

At a hearing before the U.S. House aviation subcommittee in January, Barnett advocated greater use of Positive Passenger Bag Matching. Under bag-match, no checked bag is transported without an accompanying passenger.

Barnett's testimony came days after airlines were to have met stricter security requirements, under legislation passed in November.

Bucking the airlines
By calling for greater use of bag-match, Barnett is bucking the large U.S. airlines.

The carriers say bag-match is costly and would trigger delays. One airline has said it would have to reduce operations by 25 percent to implement bag-match.

Barnett says the evidence contradicts the airlines' assertions.

He testified that a 1997 study, which he conducted under the direction of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), found bag-match caused minimal delays — on average about a minute.

Moreover, the use of bag-match in Western Europe, for all U.S. international flights, and by two small domestic airlines — JetBlue and Frontier Airlines — has caused minimal disruption, he testified.

FAA's position
The FAA, meanwhile, has indicated it sees explosive detection systems as the ultimate safeguard. As of Dec. 31, airlines will be required to employ such systems to screen all bags.

The FAA says it is uncertain what role bag match would have after the deadline.

Barnett questioned the wisdom of relying exclusively on explosion detection systems come next year.

Bag-match, he said, could be a vital backup in case a system did not detect an explosive device in a bag.

One step forward
Bag-match has gained greater currency since Sept. 11.

In a move Barnett described as "bold," Congress included it as one of several methods that airlines could employ to meet the January deadline for tighter security.

Barnett says all airlines have been using bag-match since the deadline, but connecting passengers are exempt from the requirement.

Connecting passengers
Ignoring connecting passengers is a grave mistake, Barnett testified.

They account for one-quarter of passengers, and a terrorist might well check a luggage bomb and de-board before a connecting leg — which terrorists are suspected of doing in the 1989 destruction of a French DC-10 jet.

Barnett says the exemption for connecting passengers is unnecessary: Of every 2,000 connecting passengers in his 1997 study, only one had checked a bag and was missing when the outbound flight left the connecting hub.

Indeed, he said, air safety is still very much threatened and, despite the new safety measures, terrorists may well target security gaps.

"There is every reason to fear that terrorists are still fascinated by aviation," Barnett testified, "and that their further success against airplanes would horrify the American people, devastate the airline industry, and gravely harm the national economy."