In all, an Associated Press investigation found 268 perimeter security breaches since 2004 at airports that together handle three-quarters of U.S. commercial passenger traffic. And that's an undercount, because two airports among the 31 that AP surveyed didn't have data for all years, while four others - Boston's Logan and the New York City area's three main airports - refused to release any information, citing security concerns.
AP Investigation Details Perimeter Breaches at US Airports - ABC News
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, hundreds of millions of dollars have been
spent to upgrade perimeter fencing, cameras and detection technology.
Many airports have dozens of miles of fencing, but not all of that is
frequently patrolled or always in view of security cameras.
Airport officials insist perimeters are secure, and that an intruder
being caught is proof their systems work. They declined to outline
specific measures, other than to say they have layers that include
fences, cameras and patrols. Employees are required to ask for proof of
security clearance if a badge is not obvious.
Authorities said it is neither financially nor physically feasible to keep all intruders out.
Related
If you think that most airport fences are monitored by
cameras, or motion sensors, or alarms that might deter potential
fence-climbers, well, think again. According to congressional testimony
from Rafi Ron, an airport security consultant and former director of
security at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, “most of our airports today
are still not protected by an operating perimeter intrusion detection
systems [sic]. In other terms, we don’t know when a breach occurs.” Even
when those systems do exist, they don’t always work; the Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey paid Raytheon at least $100 million for a perimeter intrusion detection system, only to be embarrassed last year when a stranded, dripping-wet jet skier
hopped a fence at John F. Kennedy International Airport and walked
across the tarmac and into the Delta terminal without attracting any
attention.
For all the money and attention that in-airport screening
gets, the back doors to airports are, comparatively, wide open—and
people go through them all the time. In March 2012, an Adderall addict
named Kenneth Mazik
crashed his Jeep through a fence at Philadelphia International Airport
and drove it up and down various runways before being stopped. In
November 2012, an employee at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International
Airport, having forgotten his lunch or jacket or something, had a
friend toss a bag containing the item over the perimeter fence.
Unfortunately, the bag got stuck on the fence, and a video shows the employee actually climbing up on the fence to get it down. Security didn’t notice.
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