Fort Lauderdale shooting raises questions over US airport security policy
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport has reopened after Friday’s attack by a lone gunman which left five people – including a British woman – dead and eight injured.
The attack has raised questions about the transportation of firearms and whether baggage claim areas are secure enough, with a US flyers’ rights pressure group saying airports are now ‘the number-one soft target’.
Gunman Esteban Santiago removed his gun from a checked bag, which was transported legally, loaded it in a bathroom and opened fire in the baggage claim area.
Great-grandmother Olga Woltering, a British woman who lived in the US, was among those killed.
Baggage claim is outside the secure areas monitored by Transportation Safety Administration agents.
US passenger advocacy group FlyersRights.org has called for emergency measures to prevent further incidents.
"Airports are now clearly the number-one soft target, and are naked and totally unprotected," it said in a statement.
It has called for a ban of live ammunition in checked baggage.
Under current TSA rules, unloaded guns can be legally transported as checked baggage in a lockable hard case which can include separately packed ammunition.
"TSA doesn’t want to infringe on anyone’s right to take a firearm with them when they travel. We just want to make sure it’s packed in the safest way possible and that it’s in a checked bag so it’s not accessible during the flight," TSA spokesman Mark Howell said.
In addition, baggage claim areas are not part of an airport’s secure ‘airside’ zones and can be accessed by members of the public without any ID at any time.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the union which represents TSA agents, said it wants measures put it place ‘to improve the security of passengers, TSA officers, and airport and airline personnel’.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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