Airline Security Hurt by Air Carriers' Control of FAA

October 24, 2001 Contact: Dawn Deeks 202/712-9799 ext. 804

Airline Security Hurt by Air Carriers' Control of FAA
Flight Attendants Demand Safer Skies

NEWARK - The virtual control of the Federal Aviation Administration by
airline management has meant that today's aviation system is still not
secure over a month after the attacks of September 11, said flight
attendants in Newark who met today to talk about security issues in the
aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

Association of Flight Attendants International President Patricia Friend, a
member of the DOT Rapid Response Team for Aircraft Security and a United
Airlines flight attendant, made this statement at the meeting:

"Airline management is more concerned with on-time departures than it is
with security. And the airlines' resistance to increased security has
stopped the FAA from enacting the aircraft and airport security
recommendations of the Rapid Response teams appointed by the Secretary of
Transportation. Six weeks after September 11, the FAA has failed to force
the airlines to protect crews and passengers against another terrorist
attack.

"Every day, flight attendants are pressured by airline management to skip
vital security measures in order to have an on-time departure. The events of
September 11 proved once and for all that safety and security must be our
top priority. Flight attendants and passengers recognize this, but the
airlines are still focusing on lost revenue and possible delays if increased
security measures are enacted, rather than increased safety. This is a
disgrace.

"The airlines and the FAA are spinning an elaborate fairytale to try to
convince passengers the system is secure enough. It's not. Flight atendants
are on planes and in airports every day. We see the gaping holes. That means
terrorists can see the holes. We know that more needs to be done.

"We don't know how the terrorists got weapons onto the planes on September
11, but those weapons could have been left by sympathetic ground employees
who were not required to pass through security. And we've known the dangers
of unscreened checked luggage since a bomb exploded on Pan Am 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland. Today, ground crews who have not been through a
security checkpoint still have access to the aircraft. Checked baggage that
has not been x-rayed is still loaded directly onto the plane.

"The FAA and the airlines would like us to believe that it's back to
business as usual. But we know better. We do not feel safe because our
airlines and the FAA refuse to make the necessary changes to provide real
security. If the airline industry made a firm commitment to embrace the
vital security recommendations made by industry experts, the passengers
would return. But until then, we won't be part of the charade. The flight
attendants will not stand silent while our lives and the lives of our
passengers are at risk. And passengers will not return until the FAA and the
airlines put security first."

More than 50,000 flight attendants join together to form AFA, the
world's largest flight attendant union. Visit us @ www.afanet.org.
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