Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Business

Suspected Egypt Plot Prompts Security Concerns at U.S. Airports

  • Most of 1 million workers aren't searched entering airport
  • Drug, weapons charges prompted lawmakers to seek changes
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, right, looks at the remains of a crashed Russian passenger jet in Hassana, Egypt, on Oct. 31, 2015.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, right, looks at the remains of a crashed Russian passenger jet in Hassana, Egypt, on Oct. 31, 2015.

Photographer: Suliman el-Oteify/Egyptian Prime Minister's Office via AP
By

The suspected bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt is raising concerns about security loopholes in the U.S., where the vast majority of the almost 1 million employees at airports aren’t subject to searches like those that travelers receive.

Intelligence reports that an airport worker may have been responsible for planting an explosive device on a Metrojet Airbus A321, which broke apart and crashed on Oct. 31, are a sobering reminder that terrorist groups might try to do the same thing here, said Representative John Katko, a New York Republican who is chairman of the House’s transportation security subcommittee.