WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2020) The efforts by the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to reduce potential insider threats from 1.8 million aviation workers suffer from a failure to develop a broad strategy to vet employees, especially those with access privileges that have been used in the past to smuggle guns, the General Accountability Office (GAO) said in an audit report.
"TSA's Insider Threat Program is not guided by a strategic plan with strategic goals and objectives nor does it have performance goals," the report said on Monday. "In some cases, workers have used access privileges to commit crimes, including stealing an aircraft and smuggling guns."
As of January 2020, TSA officials said they were developing a roadmap that could serve as a new strategic plan for the program. However, officials had not finalized the contents and were uncertain when it would be completed and implemented, the report said.
One of the most spectacular incidents took place in August 2018, when a ground service agent at Seattle Tacoma International Airport in the state of Washington stole and flew a turboprop aircraft for nearly an hour before killing himself in a crash.
Prior to the theft, the employee told a fellow airport employee that he developed skills needed to fly by playing video games.
