The Nation - News from Sept. 26, 1989

The Federal Aviation Administration said it has tightened security standards since the December bombing over Scotland of Pan Am Flight 103 that killed 270 people, but a General Accounting Office investigation said the FAA does not know if airlines are meeting the standards. The GAO report was summarized by Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-Ill.) at a hearing of her House Government Operations subcommittee on government activities and transportation. Collins said security deficiencies found in recent FAA airline inspections showed breakdowns in the training of airline security personnel. Isaac Yeffet, former director general of security for El Al Israel Airlines, told the subcommittee that training given security agents for U.S. air carriers “is extremely low, insufficient and not effective.”