New air control center unguarded

http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/4906967p-4841912c.html

Metal detectors, remote-controlled cameras and an office for armed guards will serve as little more than decoration when a new center for air traffic controllers opens next month in Burien.

The metal detector in the guardhouse has been turned on, but will go unused. Same thing for the X-ray machine that the Federal Aviation Administration purchased to scan the controllers' mail.

The guardhouse itself - built specifically so two guards could monitor 16 remote-controlled cameras and the other security equipment - will sit empty. Instead, the controllers responsible for directing planes into the region will also have to monitor the security cameras on some shifts.

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"If something happens to this building, just hope you're not flying at that time," said Dan Olsen, an air traffic controller and representative from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
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wish I could post more but: in a nutshell this is a newly opened, highest of tech building and equipment but there is no money to guard or man it.

if this building goes down hell will break out in the sky.

<<<The reduction in security also represents a change in the way the FAA looks at the issue as the "hysteria" over the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon has subsided, said FAA spokesman Mike Fergus>>>

:wtf: Just today, another alert about terror in US cities from the FBI.