[Infowarrior] - Delta Says Security Failures Put Travelers in ‘Peril’ (Update2)

[Richard Forno]

Delta Says Security Failures Put Travelers in ‘Peril’ (Update2)
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8lLgFyRkgT8&pos=9#

By Mary Jane Credeur

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Officer  
Richard Anderson said he’s “disappointed” government security  
implemented in the past decade failed to prevent an attempted  
terrorist attack on Christmas Day.

International screening and passenger watch lists started after the  
September 2001 attacks and the 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800 over  
the Atlantic Ocean shouldn’t have let another incident happen,  
Anderson said in a weekly recorded message to employees. A Nigerian  
man tried to blow up a flight by Delta’s Northwest unit Dec. 25, the  
U.S. Department of Justice said.

“We’re obviously disappointed that given all the work we’ve put in to  
building the advance passenger notification system, and following all  
the screening guidelines since TWA 800 and after 9/11, to have this  
occur again is disappointing to all of us,” Anderson said. Terrorism  
was suspected in the TWA flight until the National Transportation  
Safety Board determined a wiring short-circuit caused fuel-tank vapors  
to explode.

He said the air travel security efforts “over the last decade really  
ought to give us a better result than the peril our crew and  
passengers faced on Christmas.”

The airline, based in Atlanta, will “make our points clear in  
Washington” as the government reviews what happened, Anderson said.

President Barack Obama has called for an investigation of what he  
called the “systemic failure” of security procedures that allowed Umar  
Farouk Abdulmutallab to get through security in Nigeria and Amsterdam  
with explosives in his underwear.

Not on List

Abdulmutallab tried to detonate the device as Flight 253 prepared to  
land in Detroit, the Department of Justice said. Other passengers  
subdued him, and the plane landed safely.

The Nigerian man’s father had warned officials at the U.S. embassy in  
Nigeria that he was worried about his son’s extremist views, U.S.  
authorities said. Abdulmutallab had been placed on a watch list known  
as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, though he  
wasn’t on the “no-fly” list that would have kept him off the plane,  
officials said.

Obama was scheduled to receive preliminary results of the government  
inquiry today. The Netherlands and Nigeria said yesterday they will  
start using full-body scanners on passengers to detect explosives.

Delta and Northwest, carriers that merged in 2008, received a single  
operating certificate today from the U.S. Federal Aviation  
Administration that allows the airlines to combine flight schedules  
and ticketing.

Delta fell 3 cents to $11.34 at 12:21 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange  
composite trading. The shares have fallen 1 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mary Jane Credeur in Atlanta at mcredeur at bloomberg.net 
.

Last Updated: December 31, 2009 12:25 EST