Pakistani plane hijacked, but runs out of fuel
     ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - May 24, 1998 1:08 p.m. EDT -- A Pakistani
 passenger plane was hijacked Sunday but forced to land when it ran
 out of fuel, airport officials said.
     The Pakistan International Airlines plane with 38 passengers and
 crew members on board was on its way from the remote southwestern
 Baluchistan province to the southern port city of Karachi, said
 officials at Karachi International Airport.
     The officials said the Fokker Friendship propeller aircraft had
 been forced to land in Hyderabad, 90 miles away. The hijackers were
 still aboard and it wasn't known what weapons they possessed.
     The identity or nationalities of the hijackers also was not
 known.
     Officials had said the plane was being hijacked to India. A
 state-run news agency report claimed that the hijackers said they
 were Indian nationals. The Associated Press of Pakistan was quoting
 an unnamed airline official.
     The hijacking came as tensions between Pakistan and India have
 soared over India's recent testing of five nuclear devices. The two
 countries have gone to war three times.
     The control tower in Karachi said the plane was coming from
 Turbat, 240 miles away in Pakistan's desolate southwest.
     Turbat borders Iran and it was not clear why an aircraft from
 such an isolated area would be targeted.
     Airport officials in New Delhi would not comment.
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                Duncan working to ensure airline safety
         By Richard Powelson News-Sentinel Washington bureau
     One of Knoxville Rep. John J. Duncan Jr.'s biggest responsibil-
 ities is using his chairmanship of the aviation subcommittee to
 ensure that airlines are moving fast enough toward wise improvements
 in security.
     They aren't, he found.
     Terrorists around the world continue to look for weaknesses in
 airports' security so they can blow up a plane full of citizens,
 mostly from one country that they want to punish. So federal com-
 missions, Congress, airlines and airports keep studying ways to
 stay ahead of the terrorists.
     One of the biggest challenges is devising a system that keeps
 suitcases of explosives from getting on a plane. Airport staffs are
 not large enough to check every bag before it is put on a plane.
     There is a promising explosives detection system, called the
 CTX-5000, which uses the same technology found in hospitals' CAT
 body scan systems to provide a three-dimensional image of objects
 in luggage.
     Federal officials bought 54 of the CTX devices, costing $52
 million, because Congress and the federal airline safety commission
 headed by Vice President Al Gore recommended that airports and air-
 lines would be safer if they routinely used more explosives
 detection systems.
     The new systems were placed at major airports for a testing
 period. But Duncan's subcommittee staff learned from the Department
 of Transportation's inspector general that the new machines were
 not being used much.
     While the machines can scan more than 200 bags an hour, they
 were being used on fewer than 200 bags per day.
                             How come?
     The system initially had a high false alarm rate, requiring a
 time-consuming search of the inside contents of luggage and result-
 ing in no explosives. The Federal Aviation Administration says the
 machines are being used much more often now with improving success.
 But the inspector general will have to take another look at usage
 before Congress can be sure that the rhetoric matches the facts.
     To help speed up the testing and use of promising new security
 equipment for airports, Duncan convinced the FAA to fund a new test
 site at McGhee Tyson Airport near Knoxville. That is one of the
 long-time traditions in Congress -- subcommittee and committee
 chairman have much influence on the locations of testing and
 demonstration sites.
     The McGhee Tyson Airport test site has received so many offers
 to test new technology that its manager is seeking more federal
 funding so it can better meet demand. The alliance handling the
 testing started with a $1 million federal grant for this year. It
 has requested an $11 million budget for next year, and Congress is
 studying its budget needs.
     Another interesting invention is the Ionscan machine. Instead
 of having to search through all the contents of a bag, this machine
 allows a security officer to simply rub a cloth over and around the
 latch end of a bag.
     If the bag contains explosives, microscopic amounts of the ex-
 plosive material likely would be picked up by the cloth. A six-
 second scan of the cloth determines if explosives are present. These
 machines are relatively cheap among security technology -- under
 $100,000 each.
     Keeping airlines safe has to be one of the top 10 priorities of
 Congress. Many business people must fly often, and all members of
 Congress have to fly weekly during much of the year as they commute
 to and from Washington from their districts.
     The public cannot be sure of exactly how good or bad airport
 security is because security staffs keep the details secret to avoid
 advertising their weaknesses to terrorists. But Duncan has pledged
 to stay on top of the issue and make sure airports are adapting
 quickly enough to improved security technology.
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