Airlines didn't enforce their own guidelines on box cutters

WASHINGTON -- Airlines failed to enforce existing security guidelines on Sept. 11 that required airport screeners to confiscate box cutters from passengers, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Government rules did not specifically bar the objects before last year's attacks, but the airlines were in charge of security then, with the Federal Aviation Administration overseeing their performance. The airlines issued a manual in 1994 that listed for screeners items passengers could not carry past airport checkpoints.

The AP obtained a copy of the document, which included box cutters such as those purportedly used by the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers.

"If they knew these were problems, why weren't they more responsible in protecting the public?" asked former FAA security chief Billie Vincent.

The Air Transport Association, which represents major airlines, and the Regional Airline Association, the trade group for smaller carriers, issued the Checkpoint Operations Guide to implement Federal Aviation Administration security regulations.

ATA spokesman Michael Wascom said only: "Box cutters were not prohibited by the FAA on 9-11-01," and refused to comment further. Officials of the regional airlines' group would not comment.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said keeping box cutters off planes was an industry requirement, not a government order. She said the FAA allowed airline passengers to carry blades less than four inches long before Sept. 11. Government rules now prohibit such items.

The manual for security screeners was issued by the airlines' trade groups to comply with FAA regulations and was in effect at the time of the terror attacks. The document lists box cutters and pepper spray as items not allowed past security checkpoints. Screeners were told to call supervisors if either item were to be found.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has said some of the hijackers used box cutters to take over the planes, and the indictment of alleged hijacking co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui charged that Mohammed Atta, the leader of the hijackers, had pepper spray.