Local security expert suggests changes after stolen plane crashes
On Friday, 29-year-old Horizon Airlines employee Richard Russell stole and flew a turboprop from sea-tac airport while air traffic tried to talk him down. About an hour later, the plane crashed, killing Russell. He was thought to be suicidal.
A local security expert, Charles Bennett Jr., says something like this could happen again. “Nobody makes changes in security until it’s too late,” he said.
Bennett worked for the secret service for a time and says airports could be doing more. He says it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.
“What people don’t understand, is that the perimeters of the airports aren’t 100% visible all the time and completely secured,” he said.
He suggests increasing border security and also improving ground control communications. “With that, there shouldn’t be a gap between ground control knowing if an aircraft is moving and if it’s authorized or not,” he said.
Every minute of response time is critical in a situation like this. Bennett also says that in mechanical departments like the one where Russell worked, there should be a policy requiring at least two people to work together at any given time.
He also suggests airports employ more trained security agents, not just TSA agents. “We tend to think that well, if people see TSA walking around, now they’re going to seem more secure. But in my opinion, no, because they’re not trained for that. They’re trained for the checkpoints,” he said.
He also says smaller airports are more likely to have loopholes when it comes to security. “So a smaller airport…say the Bermuda Dunes airport or even the Palm springs airport, there’s a lot less distance to travel from the hangars or the repair areas, to the taxiways and the runways.”
He also touched on the importance of mental health resources being available to employees, and the need for training to identify at-risk individuals.
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