LAX SECURITY FAILURES DECRIED REPORTERS SMUGGLED DEVICES PAST SCREENERS.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

City officials and security experts expressed alarm Wednesday that a team of New York reporters carrying illegal knives and pepper spray breezed through security checks at LAX and other airports.

In a test of security measures implemented after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, reporters from the New York Daily News were able to fly through 11 U.S. airports over Labor Day weekend, with the weapons concealed in their carry-on luggage.

Not one airport screener - including those at Los Angeles International and Santa Barbara airports - detected the contraband, which included box cutters, rubber-handled razor knives and pepper spray.

``Any time a security breach happens at an airport, it's alarming,'' said Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards, a specialist in airports. He added that the city is working to meet federally mandated deadlines of Nov. 19 for hiring new security screeners and Dec. 31 to have new baggage screening equipment in place.

``We do want LAX to be the safest airport in the nation,'' he said. ``We believe LAX is safe and secure.''

Retired Rear Adm. David Stone, appointed LAX's federal security director last month, did not return phone calls. Randy McIntosh, federal security director for Santa Barbara Airport, referred all calls to the Transportation Security Administration in Washington.

The security breach follows a CBS News investigation of security screeners last week that broached airport checkpoints with lead-lined carry-ons, foiling 70 percent of X-ray machines at several airports.

This summer, federal investigators from the TSA smuggled fake guns, dynamite and bombs through screeners at 32 of the nation's largest airports. At LAX, the failure rate was 41 percent.

Amy Zegart, an expert in national security at the Public Policy School at the University of California, Los Angeles, called the Labor Day operation a glaring hole in homeland security efforts.

``This is incredible, (but) it's as unsurprising as it is disturbing,'' she said. ``The approach is fatally flawed - it requires catching every single toenail clipper, corkscrew and gun that goes through the airport.

``We could have Superman standing by the X-ray machine with his X-ray vision and we couldn't catch everything.''

What's needed, she said, are better ways to prevent terrorists in flight, such as stronger cockpit doors and better pre-screening of suspect passengers.

The New York Daily News reported Wednesday that airport guards checked IDs, hand-searched carry-ons, X-rayed luggage, used hand-held metal detectors and forced many passengers to remove their shoes in search of contraband - but failed to find illegal items stowed in their bags.

During the checks, screeners peeked into bags but often didn't bother to unzip pockets and remove their contents.

The paper reported it was able to breach security at airports in Newark, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Maine - where terrorists boarded planes on Sept. 11. Other failing airports included LAX, Santa Barbara, Chicago, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and New York's La Guardia and Kennedy airports.

TSA officials - now charged with screening passengers - said the reporters' findings demonstrated the failure of a security system they inherited last fall. But they maintained that the nation's airports are more secure than ever.

``While these findings are certainly a concern, the reality is that the TSA securely processes through the aviation system an average of 5 million passengers on over 30,000 flights every single day since taking over the responsibility for security on Feb. 17, 2002,'' TSA spokesman Dave Steigman said in a phone interview from Washington.

He said the TSA has confiscated 527 guns and 2,300 scissors, pocket knives, box cutters and other items.

U.S. Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, who supported measures to reinforce cockpit doors, hire more air marshals and scan all luggage, once said the skies were safer today than before Sept. 11.

But he said the Labor Day failures mean much more work is needed.

``While we've had some success, it's obvious that we need to redouble our efforts to make our skies safer for the flying public,'' he said.