"Sitting quietly on every airplane are passengers who remember the courage and commitment of the men and women on United Flight 93," Hawley told a Senate panel Monday, recalling the hijacked jetliner which crashed on Sept. 11, apparently after the passengers and crew -- alerted by air-phone conversations with loved ones and colleagues to the use of other planes as missiles that morning -- attempted to regain control of the cockpit.

"The way Americans think about hijackings changed on that flight," continued Hawley. "For decades the accepted response was to avoid confrontation... (On Sept. 11, 2001) the paradigm changed and is gone forever.

"Americans will not sit still when threatened," he concluded.

Hawley appeared before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to defend the Transportation Security Administration's decision to allow scissors smaller than four inches and tools less than seven inches long aboard aircraft.

Flight attendants and families of Sept. 11 victims oppose the move, and Congress could veto the change.

Emergency measures put in place after 9-11 are no longer necessary because the agency has adopted a more effective, multi-layered strategy involving local law enforcement, background checks, hardened cockpit doors and passengers, Hawley said, in defense of the new policy.

Removing the ban will allow baggage screeners at airports to focus their attention on explosive devices, which new, risk-based assessments reveal to be a greater threat, he said.

Scissors and currently permitted items such as credit cards, soda cans and even bare hands could be used to injure someone on an airplane, he said, but that is also true in shopping malls and office buildings and is not the same as a serious terrorist threat.

"In today's world, with today's security systems, the small objects we're talking about aren't going to enable a major terrorist attack," Hawley said.

The proposed changes were attacked by legislators and flight attendants as soon as they were unveiled earlier this month.

"Why would anyone need to bring small scissors or screwdrivers on board?" Pat Friend, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants asked at the hearing.

Allowing the objects on board puts the safety of flight crews at risk, she said, holding up several pairs of scissors she said could be used a weapons.

"We believe unequivocally that these proposed changes will further endanger the lives of all flight attendants and the passengers we work so hard to keep safe and secure," Friend said.

Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, asked why only 727 of the nation's 220,000 flight attendants had completed the voluntary self-defense training offered by the administration.

"I don't think you should be allowed to be a member of a flight crew unless you have taken this training," he said. "It's time now that (flight attendants) understand they're part of the passengers' defense force as well as being attendants."

The training is not offered in enough places, Friend answered, and because it is voluntary flight attendants have difficulty stringing together enough days off to attend.

Flight attendant union representatives have been "begging and pleading" the agency and their employers to make self-defense a part of required training, she said.

The airline industry approves of using risk analysis to determine security priorities, said James C. May, president of the Air Transport Association of America, Inc., which represents the major U.S. airlines.

"There are too many possible threats, and too few government and industry resources to respond to every conceivable threat," May said. "Risk assessment and risk management are fundamental to the overall success of TSA and airline security."

May voiced industry concerns that the hassle of security could cost airlines money by driving away passengers, especially for short flights. Airlines are currently operating at 76 or 77 percent capacity, he said, far short of the 83 percent needed to break even.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said that most passengers are accustomed to waiting and questioned the agency and industry's motives for streamlining baggage inspections.

"This peak travel season provides ample incentive for the TSA to attempt to streamline security procedures, and it has, no doubt, played a role in the timing," he said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ed Markey, D-N.Y., announced he will be meeting personally with Kip Hawley to discuss the "Leave All Blades Behind Act" he has introduced in the House to prevent the proposed changes.

"TSA should stand for 'Transportation Security Administration', not 'Take your Scissors Aboard,'" Markey said.

Markey questioned the ability of passengers and crew to effectively restrain an armed terrorist or troubled passenger.

A Dec. 9 incident in which a man who attempted to charge the cockpit of a Northwest Airlines flight to Honolulu was restrained by passengers and crew could have been deadly under the new rules, he said. "We were fortunate the passenger was not armed with a sharp blade such as ... metal scissors."

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is expected to introduce a companion bill in the Senate this week.

Stevens said he was considering signing on as co-sponsor.

"I'm worried about the fact that people are going to look at this and say, you know, you can carry on any tool you want," Stevens said.

If successful, the initiative would mark the second time that lawmakers have intervened to change the prohibited items list. The first was in 2004, when Congress included a provision in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act requiring that cigarette lighters and matches be banned from aircraft.

Source: United Press International

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