A personal story: Calling security a 'joke,' frequent flier flies less

By Cathleen Ferraro -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Sunday, Sept. 8, 2002

	Steve Mallory, a frequent business traveler, doesn't appear at airports as often as he used to. When he does fly, he checks to see what he could use on board to defend himself. Sacramento Bee/Manny Crisostomo

For three decades Steve Mallory has flown to isolated pockets of the world. But after last year's terrorist attacks, the businessman and former journalist would rather drive.

Mallory isn't afraid of being hijacked. He's just ticked off about airport security practices.

"Any professional terrorist can get through our U.S. security system easily today," he said. "The people involved in airport security have no training, no understanding of what they're looking for. It's an absolute joke."

So since Sept. 11, Mallory has driven five times from Sacramento to Los Angeles and Las Vegas for meetings - instead of taking his standard short-hop flights on Southwest Airlines.

The 59-year-old businessman, who owns a Sacramento media, video production and news company called Pacific Satellite Connection, or PacSat, has even skipped conferences where he was previously a regular.

"It's hurting the airlines, not me," he said.

When driving wasn't an option, Mallory has flown plenty of times since last fall - to Atlanta, London, New York, Belize and Bermuda.

On those trips, he says he gets particularly incensed when he sees security guards searching elderly people or women struggling to balance kids, strollers and suitcases.

"The failure in the system is (airport security guards) don't understand profiling," he said. "As a foreign correspondent, I knew people who hijacked aircraft and I can't name any who were ever 86-year-old grandmothers or mothers of two."

During the 1970s and '80s Mallory worked as an NBC correspondent, experiencing security in dozens of foreign airports.

Airports in Israel, Russia, Japan, Germany and some Arab countries are the most efficient about flagging potentially dangerous passengers, he said.

On a recent flight, Mallory said he accidentally packed a miniature Swiss Army knife in his carry-on bag. An X-ray machine in Atlanta picked up the knife. A security guard tore through Mallory's belongings, couldn't find it and gave up, Mallory said.

On another flight, Mallory was seated next to singer Pat Boone, who said he had been stopped several times for security checks since Sept. 11.

"I told him, ‘Don't you think it's pretty stupid that you're a famous singer and obviously not part of the profile of a terrorist?'" Mallory said.

Sept. 11 changed Mallory's travel routines in other ways. When he boards a plane, he checks to see what he could use to defend himself.

"If anyone thinks these security people will prevent a disaster, they won't," he said. "It'll be the passengers. We're on our own."