自从 9 月 11日的恐怖袭击事件发生以来，机场就以一种大多数乘客将其归类为“烦人”的方式来打击安全措施。从金属探测器到不允许乘客携带瓶装水通过安检的政策，机场的安检过程非常广泛，并为航空旅行增加了大量时间。但是，如果这些安全流程不足以保证商业航班的安全呢？如果机场将乘客视为潜在威胁，但没有采取足够措施来筛查他们自己的员工怎么办？
CNN 的调查显示，最近机场安全方面存在几个漏洞，这些漏洞都与乘客无关，而是与机场员工有关。首先，CNN 调查人员发现，许多机场员工可以直接进入“飞机和停机坪”，而无需自己通过安检。这意味着行李工人和其他员工甚至不必像乘客一样通过金属探测器，这反过来意味着其中一个人可以轻松地将炸弹或其他危险物品装载到飞机上。
在做出令人震惊的发现之后，CNN 继续挖掘并发现了一些可能更令人不安的事情。在美国的大多数机场，员工只需要在受雇日期进行背景调查。一旦通过了就业前检查，工人基本上就可以在整个就业期间获得免费通行证。换句话说，机场不会重复进行背景调查来检查员工犯罪记录的发展情况。
出于多种原因，这一事实令人担忧。首先，它显示了对犯罪记录如何运作的误解。雇用某人并认为他们值得信赖是合理的，因为他们最初的背景调查显示没有犯罪活动。假设同一个人永远不会犯罪，或者根据一次背景调查盲目信任他们多年是不合理的。毕竟，犯罪记录从来都不是一成不变的，背景调查最终只是一个人在某个时间点的历史快照。
其次，这个问题是对乘客及其安全的公然不尊重。假设所有威胁都来自外部是不公平的。相反，应该要求机场员工接受比乘客更严格的检查和安检，仅仅因为他们每天都在机场，因此是一个更加持续和危险的威胁。
最后，最近的安全漏洞表明，机场在确保其员工值得信赖方面做得不够。12 月，亚特兰大机场的一名乘客设法将枪支走私到商业航班上。这怎么可能？因为达美航空公司的一名行李搬运工将这袋枪械通过安检，然后交给了乘客。
某些机场以及 TSA 会随机对现有员工进行犯罪背景调查。然而，此类政策并未在所有地方执行，该国也没有机场对其每一位员工进行定期重复检查。
一句话：机场需要更好地关注自己的员工。如果行李搬运工可以将枪支带入机场和飞机，那么炸弹或生物武器也很容易被带上飞机。普遍重复背景调查可能是防止这些违规行为的一种方式，所有员工的常规机场安全政策也是如此。
th terrorist attacks, airports have cracked down on security in such a way that most passengers would classify as "annoying." From metal detectors to a policy that doesn't allow passengers to bring bottles of water through security, the process for screening at airports is extensive, and adds a lot of time to air travel. However, what if these security processes aren't enough to keep commercial flights safe? And what if airports are looking at their passengers as potential threats, but aren't doing enough to screen their very own employees?
CNN investigations have revealed several holes in airport security as of late, and they all have to do not with passengers, but with airport employees. First, CNN investigators discovered that many airport employees have direct access to "airplanes and tarmac" without having to go through security themselves. That means that baggage workers and other employees don't even have to go through the metal detectors that passengers do, which in turn means that one of these individuals could easily load a bomb or some other dangerous item onto a plane.
After making that alarming discovery, CNN kept digging and found something that might be even more troubling. In most airports in the United States, employees are only required to go through background checks at their hire date. And once a pre-employment check has been cleared, a worker essentially has a free pass for their entire period of employment. Airports, in other words, don't run repeat background checks to check for developments in employee criminal records.
This fact is concerning for a number of reasons. First of all, it shows a misunderstanding of how criminal records work. It's reasonable to hire someone and think them trustworthy because their initial background check shows no criminal activity. It is no reasonable to assume that the same person will never commit a crime, or to blindly trust them for years based off a single background check. After all, criminal records are never set in stone, and a background check is ultimately just a snapshot of a person's history at a single point in time.
Secondly, this issue shows a blatant disrespect for passengers and their safety. It's not fair to assume that all threats will come from the outside. On the contrary, airport employees should be required to go through more rigid checks and security than passengers should, simply because they are at the airport every day and are therefore a more consistent and dangerous threat.
Finally, recent security breaches have shown that airports aren't doing enough to make sure that their employees are trustworthy. In December, a passenger at the Atlanta airport managed to smuggle guns onto a commercial flight. How was this possible? Because a Delta Airlines baggage handler brought the bag of firearms through security and then handed it off to the passenger.
Certain airports, as well as the TSA, do conduct random criminal background investigations on existing employees. However, such policies are not enforced everywhere, and there is no airport in the country that runs regular repeat checks on every one of its employees.
Bottom line: airports need to be better about keeping an eye on their own people. If a baggage handler can get guns into an airport and onto a plane, then bombs or biological weapons could easily be brought aboard as well. Universal repeat background checks might be a way to prevent these breaches, as would a regular airport security policy for all employees.
