San Jose’s airport, where perimeter security was exposed as a flaw four years ago after a teenager slipped onto the airfield and stowed away on a jet, has been chosen as one of two nationwide to test new intrusion detection and deterrence technologies, officials said Tuesday.
The Transportation Security Administration plans to test a host of technologies, including video cameras, radar, microwave, infra-red, laser, fence and ground sensors as well as under-vehicle screening and analytics software.
“Many airports are far too vast to have personnel watching every inch of perimeter,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Castro Valley. “But new technology can serve as a force multiplier, letting us know when a breach happens anywhere, at any time, and help us catch intruders before they can do harm.”
Swalwell and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, said Tuesday that the TSA chose Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport and Miami International Airport for the $10 million in testing equipment approved by Congress.
“By bolstering the technology deployed to keep our airport perimeter secure, we are taking steps to ensure the safety of businesses, travelers, and employees and help establish Mineta as the premier gateway to Silicon Valley,” Lofgren said.
Over the past two years, Lofgren helped Mineta receive more than $16.5 million for infrastructure improvements and perimeter security upgrades. The $10 million allocated for equipment testing is the result of a provision that Swalwell authored.
In April 2015, 15-year-old Yahya Abdi, a homesick Somalia refugee who was living with his father in Santa Clara, slipped through the fencing surrounding the San Jose airport and nestled in the wheel well of a Hawaii-bound 767.
The boy had no malicious intent — he wanted to return to Africa and reconnect with his mother — and was lucky to survive the freezing temperatures and low oxygen outside the jet’s pressurized cabin during the flight. Hawaii ground crews found him when he dropped out of the wheel well of the parked jet after it landed.
But the incident raised questions about the effectiveness of security measures put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which hijackers commandeered jetliners and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A fourth jetliner crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers confronted the hijackers.
Those security measures were focused on passengers and baggage entering the aircraft through the terminals.
An Associated Press investigation in 2015 found 268 perimeter security breaches since 2004 at 31 airports that together handle three-quarters of U.S. commercial passenger traffic. Seven airports in four states — San Francisco, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Jose, Miami and Tampa — accounted for more than half those breaches.
Although none of the incidents involved a terrorist plot, the lapses nevertheless highlighted gaps in airport security in a post-9/11 world where passengers inside airports face rigorous screening to prevent attackers from slipping through.
In 2016, San Jose raised 8,600 feet of fencing at the airport’s north and south ends from 6 feet to 10 or 11 feet in key areas and topped it with a foot of razor wire to make it even harder to penetrate. That project was paid for with $3.4 million in federal grants secured by Bay Area congressional leaders, and $1.8 million in funding for related costs from the airport.
San Jose Director of Aviation John Aitken said the latest security testing “is a welcome investment in further analysis, software and hardware to complement SJC’s recent security enhancements.”
Swalwell and Lofgren’s offices said that the technologies being tested include video cameras and analytics software.
Radar, microwave, and passive infra-red sensors would be able to cover a larger area than a typical camera, they said, while laser sensors would be useful for securing large, straight sections of an airport’s perimeter.
Fence sensors could detect intruders climbing or cutting perimeter fencing, while unattended ground sensors could sense walking, digging and vehicle traffic near the protected area.
The technology will be installed in December and testing will continue through June 2019, after which findings would be reported publicly.
