Questionable background checks on workers who fix airliners

03:12 PM CDT on Thursday, July 16, 2009

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV


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Search Video: Since 9/11, the United States spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year, physically checking the passengers who board airliners.

But some are questioning the resources devoted to checking the mechanics that repair airplanes.

In recent years, the number of foreign mechanics being brought into the U.S. to repair airliners has ballooned. But the procedures used to check their backgrounds are meager or non-existent, and can be left to the companies who benefit by bringing them here.

A WFAA-TV investigation finds that San Antonio Aerospace (SAA) imported 767 foreign mechanics into its sprawling facility at San Antonio International Airport over the last two years, according to security badge data obtained under the Texas Public Information Act. Since SAA is located on airport grounds, mechanics who work there must obtain security badges from the San Antonio International Airport.

The foreign mechanics came primarily from Mexico and the Philippines, but also from 43 other countries, including Vietnam, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Jordan, China and Sudan.

Reacting to this information, U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Houston, told WFAA-TV: “The next attack on our country is not going to be because somebody is riding in an airplane. That problem is going to occur because somebody has access to an airport, as an employee, or an alleged employee, either working at the airport or working on aircraft. And if they have that access, that is the way that attack is going to happen.â€