(4 of 5)
Consider the most promising new development, and the only new scanning device certified by the FAA: the InVision CTX 5000, which combines computed tomography (CT scanning) and high-quality X-ray imaging to produce cross-sectional images of a bag's contents. The CTX 5000 is the only device available that is equipped to detect all varieties of bombs: military explosives that might be concealed behind a circuit board, like the bomb that brought Pan Am Flight 103 down; plastic-sheet explosives contained in suitcase linings; and commercial explosives that might be composed of dynamite and powders. The FAA has contributed $8 million to help develop the CTX 5000, but installing it at the 75 busiest airports in the country would cost between $400 million and $2.2 billion, according to the General Accounting Office's March report. So far there are only three of the $1 million devices in use at U.S. airports--one in San Francisco and two in Atlanta--while El Al plans to install one this fall at J.F.K. Some 21 others, however, are in place around the world, including airports in London, Brussels, Manchester and Israel. Says Bob Monetti, an engineer who lost his son Rick in the Lockerbie explosion and has for seven years been a member of the FAA's Aviation Security Advisory Board: "The city of Manchester, England, has purchased more state-of-the-art explosive-device detectors than the entire U.S."
England is also well ahead in developing stronger fuselages that can withstand blast damage. (The FAA is largely focusing its efforts on strengthening the containers that carry luggage, and not the entire plane.) But such improvements have their costs: they could boost an airplane's weight, and reduce by 10 or 20 the number of seats available. That could raise the price of a ticket some $50."They know these containers work, and they know they'd make detection cheaper, faster and more accurate," says Monetti. "But the airlines say they're too expensive."
Debates over cost infuriate some critics of the FAA. These days, about 75% of the agency's $8 billion annual budget is paid out of the Aviation Trust Fund--money collected from a 10% tax, which recently expired, levied on air fares. As the FAA's share of those revenues has risen--freeing billions for other federal programs--the portion of the trust fund earmarked for airport and safety improvements has fallen from $1.9 billion in 1992 to $1.4 billion this year, a cut of more than 25%. "The money is collected for aviation, and it should be spent for aviation, not to make the deficit look smaller," says Tim Neale, spokesman for the Air Transport Association. Representative William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat, was stunned earlier this year when FAA Administrator David Hinson and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena told him the trust fund was going broke. Jefferson was looking for money to expand the New Orleans airport. "The bottom line is that there isn't a fund for forward-looking capital projects to provide safety and security equipment for our airports," Jefferson told Time. Soon there may be no fund at all. Congressional squabbling has kept the ticket tax from being reimposed. Unless Congress acts, the fund, with $2.5 billion on hand last week, is expected to run dry by year's end.