THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, July 23, 1996                TAG: 9607230008
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A14  EDITION: FINAL  
TYPE: Editorial  
                                            LENGTH:   46 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** The death toll in the TWA tragedy is 230. Our Tuesday editorial inadvertently overstated the total. Correction published Thursday, July 25, 1996 on page A14 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT. ***************************************************************** AIRPORT SAFETY WILL COST TIME AND MONEY TIGHTER SECURITY NEEDED

It is not yet known if TWA 800 and the 290 aboard were victims of foul play, but it is far from inconceivable. The level of airport security regularly maintained in America is inadequate to the potential threats.

Fly in or out of London, Paris or Frankfurt and you'll be subjected to considerably more-rigorous inspection and questioning. In addition to X-rays of bags, you may expect to be patted down, forced to demonstrate that your camera actually takes pictures and to have a metal detector run over your body repeatedly.

By contrast, in a 1993 Transportation Department test, allegedly secure areas of U.S. airports were penetrated in 75 percent of attempts. Recent tests showed improvement, but security still was breached in 40 percent of the tests. Packages that should not have gotten on planes did; people who should not have been able to get on runways, onto planes and into secure baggage areas succeeded.

Perfect security is unattainable, of course. But the obvious shortcomings of the U.S. system need to be corrected. The first steps won't require any breakthroughs in high-tech wizardry or impinge unacceptably on civil liberties, but they will entail inconvenience and expense.

To do the job right, more monitoring is needed. That will require more security personnel. It will also involve a huge expense in time. Travelers will have to get used to arriving earlier at airports and enduring more-frequent and more-intrusive inspections. So far, airlines, the flying public and government have been unenthusiastic about paying the price in time and money. But the alternative is more lost planes and lost lives. by CNB