This is not unusual in this industry around the country because of the type of work that is done and where some of these individuals are recruited. But personnel problems aren t the only security issue the airlines are facing. In 1988, a bomb inside a suitcase in the cargo compartment blew up Pan Am Flight 103. It focused attention on the lack of security surrounding checked baggage. Today, on international flights, bags and passengers are matched, on the theory that a terrorist doesn't want to get blown up too, an assumption many question.
Domestic flights are very different.
There is virtually no bag matching, and checked baggage is seldom screened. The commission urged the Federal Aviation Administration to require the airlines to screen cargo just as they do carry-on bags, but the recommendation was never acted upon. Vahik Mekertichian is a freight forwarder who handles cargo at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Under FAA requirements, once a freight forwarder establishes a relationship with a company, they become a known shipper, and items from those companies go on passenger planes unchecked. They picked up this shipment yesterday from a known shipper, which for years we re dealing, it s an art gallery that is shipping paintings to overseas.