TSA suspects OHL-Activair of skipping bellyhold screening

THE American Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is investigating air cargo company OHL-Activair for allegedly failing to screen cargo - mostly books - shipped on international passenger flights, reports CBS News.

OHL, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, south of Nashville, claims to be the largest third party logistics companies in the world. The company's Indianapolis branch, the focus of the investigation, specialises in shipping for the publishing industry.

OHL's Activair division was recently named air freight forwarder of the year by the British International Forwarder's Association (BIFA), based on its global distribution of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce.

"We are cooperating fully," said OHL spokeswoman Kara Brown, who added that the company voluntarily removed the Indianapolis facility from TSA's Certified Cargo Screening Facility (CCSF) programme earlier this month after TSA brought the allegations.

"OHL thought suspending CCSF in Indianapolis was an appropriate, prudent and proactive procedure to undertake until further TSA conversations and OHL internal fact finding is complete," Ms Brown said.

The former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security Clark Kent Ervin said if the allegations against OHL prove to be true they are "very troubling."

Mr Ervin, head of the Homeland Security Programme at the Aspen Institute, said: "If it's widely known that in fact the shippers and forwarders don't do [the screening] very well, or at all, then it is a vulnerability that terrorists will exploit."

Since August 2010, all air cargo carried onto passenger flights originating in the United States is required to be screened by federal law.
(Source:www.schednet.com)