AIRLINE BIZ Blog | The Dallas Morning News

by Eric Torbenson/Reporter

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Authorities in Dublin are trying to get to the bottom of an incident in which live explosives made it on to a passenger plane. Have you heard about this? Only, this really wasn't about terrorism. Get this. This was actually a security test.

Apparently, a passenger unwittingly carried real bomb parts in his luggage from a flight from Slovakia -- the pilot deciding to fly even after being told an explosive was in the checked luggage. Generally, that is not good. The incident comes as the president prepares to release a review of airline security tomorrow. But will that review go far enough?

Exclusive reaction now from airline industry legend Bob Crandall, the former CEO of AMR, the parent of American Airlines.

Robert, good to have you. Happy new year.

ROBERT CRANDALL, FORMER CEO, AMR CORPORATION: Hi, Neil. How are you?

CAVUTO: Very good.

What do you make, first off, of this airport incident in Ireland? I mean, we have seen a lot of this kind of stuff going on lately. Do you feel safe flying?

CRANDALL: Oh, I feel safe enough, Neil.

But I just think we're doing lots of things wrong. Maybe the first thing we're doing wrong is, we're paying way too much attention to the things that go on an airplane, and we're not paying not nearly enough attention to the people.

We're not executing well. We're not differentiating between low-risk and high-risk, and we're not using technology very effectively. And for all those reasons, the system isn't nearly as good as it should be and could be.

CAVUTO: Still, I guess the latest salvation for us are these so- called body scanners that show you in your complete birthday suit and all of that. And that seems to be the solution for a lot of folks.

CRANDALL: No. Well, I think...

CAVUTO: What do you think of that?

CRANDALL: I think, look, the body scanners, in the first place, you can't use today's body scanners, because they take 40 to 50 seconds per person. There aren't enough body scanners. And if you tried to body scan everybody, you would simply diminish the ability of the airline system to operate.

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