May 23, 2007 11:24 pm US/Central
Second Airline Employee Blows Whistle On Security
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
A former flight attendant tells CBS 2 Investigators there are serious holes in security at O'Hare Airport.
Marcia Pinkston is the second flight attendant to come to the 2 Investigators, exposing flaws in the way doorways to planes are guarded.
As CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini reports, Pinkston says she was terminated for exposing a major failure in airport security.
Pinkston is now a hair stylist. She says she was fired in February, after just one month on the job, because she blew the whistle on a security threat at O'Hare Airport.
"I feel I was asked to violate Homeland Security rules," Pinkston said.
She worked for Mesa Airlines, which operates flights for United Express.
Pinkston says she and other newly hired flight attendants were ordered by superiors to bypass aircraft security measures.
"If I got arrested, what happens then?" Pinkston questioned.
All airline employees must have their own security codes to gain access to airplanes from the terminal or tarmac.
Pinkston says she didn't not have a code.
"No, that's why I got fired because I was insistent that they activate before I came back to work," she said.
Pinkston says she was never given a code. Instead she was told to do what's called "piggybacking" -- going through secure doors opened by others.
"I waited for another employee from another airline to come in and just put my foot in the door," she said.
Then when she complained she says she was told to use another employee's security code.
"It's not secure," she said. "Everyone I've told this to is just appalled."
Attorney Shawn Collins represents Pinkston.
"She was literally trained to break the security rules out at O'Hare," Collins said. "Ultimately the victims are the flying public who are being led to believe that there's a secure safety system out there and it's not."
Pinkston contacted the 2 Investigators after seeing the CBS 2 report exposing thousands of missing airport employee access badges that allow workers to bypass metal detectors and bag screening.
"We all trust that since 9-11 everyone's following very strict rules and come to find out they're not at all," she said.
The 2 Investigators discovered another security flaw. Marcia Pinkston was allowed to keep her airport employee badge, and it was not deactivated until we called, which means for months after being terminated Pinkston could have bypassed airport screening and boarded an airplane undetected.
As a result of these findings investigations have been launched into Mesa Airlines by the Chicago Department of Aviation and the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
An airline official says security and safety is its top priority and it adheres to all regulations.
Mesa Airlines is conducting its own investigation.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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