Experts: Air security still lax

A security guard checks a passenger's bag at La Guardia Airport in New York

By CNN's Sheila MacVicar

LONDON, England (CNN) -- New U.S. airport security measures are not nearly enough, say experts, to deal with problems in a system they still describe as lax.

"For many years, the rest of the world has been saying, 'Come on America, you've got to wake up to the current threat. You are exposed domestically,'" says Philip Baum, editor of Aviation Security International.

Terrorism was something that happened someplace else. After the hijackings and bombings in Europe in the 1970s and '80s, security improved at European airports -- but the new measures were not extended to the United States, even if the planes targeted were, very often, American.

"Terrorists are not stupid, they go to places, they investigate, they fly, and now you see by the investigation they have been preparing that incident for years," says Moshe Cohen, former head of security for TWA and now an aviation security consultant.

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For years, the U.S. General Accounting Office has severely criticized security at U.S. airports, saying these are "problems noted by the Federal Aviation Authority for more than 20 years," that FAA proposals for change are "not fully implemented" and that they are at least "two years behind schedule."

Bluntly put, the GAO reports say the weakest link in U.S. aviation security is at the X-ray machines, which are staffed by companies contracted by the airlines.

In the U.S., X-ray screeners typically earn minimum wage -- often the lowest paid job in the airport -- with no benefits.

Some airports, like Hartsfield Atlanta International, see a turnover of security staff of more than 300 percent in one year -- with very little training for staff.

By contrast, security staff in Germany are government employees -- better paid, better trained and much less likely to leave their jobs.

"We all have good educations," says one screener. "We're well paid and I think we are pretty motivated."

"We have a different philosophy, a different approach to security than on the other side of the Atlantic," says Georg Fongern of the German Airline Pilots Association. "The key to the problem doesn't lie in the air. The key is on the ground."

In one FAA test using the same images, screeners outside the U.S. found twice as many threatening objects as American screeners.

In the U.S, screeners are expected to examine one bag every five seconds, says Cohen.

That five-second pass, say security experts, is just not long enough to detect objects of such low density as plastic knives.

"If we are talking about carry-on luggage, it takes at least a minimum of 12-14 seconds to do a good job," says Cohen.

Under pressure to move passengers through, those are seconds that U.S. airport screeners just don't have.

"Aviation security is far more than the protection of lives on any one flight. It's part of the national defense. It's the difference between peace and war, as we are seeing now," says Baum.

And for the airlines already feeling the financial pinch, security costs can be a bottom-line issue. In that very competitive world, say analysts, U.S. airlines have done little unless ordered -- and only if their competitors do it too.