Crews Want Security Suspicions Analyzed

Pilots and flight attendants want a central repository for reports about people who ask too many questions, follow them in airports and take pictures on their airplanes just in case those involved aren’t merely curious, going the same way or have a few extra frames of film to use. Some suspicious employees tell their union, others their employer and some of the reports do reach the Transportation Security Administration’s Terrorist Threat Integration Center. But a recent report by an independent group claims the center doesn’t have the staff or resources to make use of the data. “We’d like all reports of unusual events to be going directly to the government for analysis,” Chris Witkowski, a spokesman for the Association of Flight Attendants, told the Associated Press. In the security-oriented environment in which flight and cabin crews work these days, many notice things that don’t seem right. “Right now, we are sitting on piles of information and creating this database and we’re fearful it’s going nowhere,” said Paul Rancatore, deputy chairman of the Allied Pilots Association’s security committee.