Originally Posted by
Carl Spackler
I understand that's the ALPA talking point, but it happens to be false. ALPA had a role later in the game and that has to be acknowledged. But to ignore the hard work done by IPA and CAPA, then claim all the credit for yourself is typical of ALPA's dishonorable methods.
Carl
CAPA website
In conjunction with the Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l, TSA tested a sterile area access system called CrewPASS in 2008 and 2009. In June 2009, TSA announced Crew Personnel Advanced Screening System (CrewPASS) would continue to operate at the test sites: Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International, Pittsburgh International, and Columbia (S.C.) Metropolitan airports.
CAPA's long-standing goal has been to both encourage and facilitate the implementation and standardization of high-level authentication methods to positively verify the identity of all individuals who are authorized flight deck access on both passenger and all-cargo carriers.
Currently, airline pilots are screened over 2,000,000 times each month by the TSA. The “Implementation of the Recommendations to the 9/11 Commission Act of Aug. 2007”, provided legislative momentum with mandates to properly identify and expedite screening of crewmembers to meet an August 2010 program deadline. CAPA, SWAPA, SWA, Priva, TSA and BWI airport managers initiated “Secure Screen” as a joint 60-day pilot biometric ID test project. The Secure Screen “test” by all accounts from the TSA, vendor, airport managers and pilot participants was highly successful.
This year the Known Crewmember Program headed by the Air Transport Association (ATA) was approved for use by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The earlier addition known as CrewPASS was tested at three east coast airports. This enhanced process adds a level of security above what we have today, but it does not meet the securest standard: a real-time, verifiable biometric process.
We are 100% in support of the Known Crewmember Program which not only raises the security level from its current level, but builds the infrastructure necessary for the addition of the real-time, verifiable biometric process that CAPA seeks. The House Aviation Subcommittee is seeking a requirement for biometrics on pilot's licenses and we believe that working together with the Subcommittee would result in a solution that would provide safer, more secure access to aircraft.
Where?