Grant Access To Nearly All Secure Areas, Says Former Pilot

In a scandal reminiscent of last year's expose of careless handling of security badges in Chicago, a Dallas, TX-based television station has uncovered the loss of 122 FAA safety inspector badges over the last five years.

Like the gaffe uncovered by CBS-2 Chicago investigative reporter Dave Savini, in which the Chicago Department of Aviation lost track of almost 4,000 badges which identified the holders as workers at O'Hare International Airport, the FAA has no way to locate its missing badges, or know if or how they're being used.

But unlike the O'Hare case, the FAA badges could be used to gain access to any airport in the US at any time, and to enter secure areas around any flight on any airline.

NBC-5 in Dallas says an FAA spokesperson reached by phone could not guarantee that badgeholders would be authorized to pass through all security checkpoints. The station talked with Denny Kelly, a former commercial pilot and a private investigator, who said the badge can give a person free access to nearly every secure area of an airport, and even to the cockpits of airliners while in flight.

"The FAA badge is probably of all the badges just as dangerous if not more so than any other," Kelly said. "The FAA badge allows you not only on one airline, plus getting through security, it allows you to get on any airline, any airplane, anyplace.

"A guy walks up with that badge and says, you know, 'I'm an FAA guy, here's my badge,' there's nothing they do about it. 'OK, fine, go through,'" Denny added.

The agency reportedly refused NBC-5's request for an on-camera interview, but insisted the public is not in danger, and promises to take an 'aggressive stance' to prevent the loss of badges in the future.

The FAA says most badges were stolen when inspectors left them unattended in vehicles. That is now forbidden. The agency says it will also stop sending badges through the US mail.

Now, if you'll please remove your shoes and step this way... oh, and we're afraid you'll need to leave that shampoo behind.

FMI: www.faa.gov