Bush Nominee Vows to Fight Air Terrorism

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s nominee for transportation secretary told Congress today that the United States “can and will take a leading role in combatting terrorism in the skies.”

Samuel K. Skinner, testifying at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, said stopping terrorism “means meeting head-on the gruesome threat . . . with all the resources we can muster.”

In written responses to questions posed by the panel, Skinner said foreign airlines serving the United States should be forced to meet the same security requirements as U.S. carriers.

He said that if the government issues new security requirements for American carriers, “a means must be employed to assure that foreign air carriers that offer service to the United States should be required to make the same improvements.”

Rules Proposed Last Year

Skinner said making the security requirements uniform would prevent U.S. airlines from losing business because of cumbersome security procedures that might inconvenience passengers.

Last year, before the Dec. 21 explosion that destroyed Pan American Flight 103 over Scotland, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed rules that would require foreign airlines serving the United States to have security procedures approved by the FAA. The rule has not yet taken effect, however.

Domestic carriers are already required to have FAA-approved security programs.

Eight days after the Pan Am disaster, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 others on the ground, the FAA toughened the security steps it requires U.S. airlines to follow at airports in Europe and the Middle East.