Stowaway sheds light on air security hole

Sep 19, 2003 12:00 PM

A man unwittingly exposed gaps in U.S. air cargo security by shipping himself more than 1,240 miles on a cargo plane last week.

Charles McKinley, 25, said Wednesday that he wanted to see his family but could not afford a plane ticket, so he packed himself in a wooden crate and was loaded into a cargo plane with the help of a friend.

"Anyone can climb into a box that's properly packaged, as was demonstrated by this fool," warned Captain Phillip Beall of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance, a group that supports arming pilots. "But a fuel-laden 767 full of boxes can be commandeered and used in exactly the same way as fuel-laden planes were used on Sept. 11," he said.

Less than 10 percent of air cargo is inspected, and machines used to inspect entire containers of cargo are confined primarily to areas along the U.S.-Canadian border and major U.S. seaports.

"We have concentrated in recent months on protecting aircrafts that carry people, but we have to do more," Asa Hutchinson, a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security, told ABC television.

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