SAFETY Act Liability Protections for Air Cargo Screeners-article


[su_row][su_column size=”1/2″]In August 2007, Congress enacted the Implementing the Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (the 9/11 Act), which requires the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to establish a system for screening all cargo transported on passenger aircraft within three years. In response, the TSA developed the Certified Cargo Screening Program (CCSP), under which the TSA may certify entities in the cargo supply chain to screen cargo for unauthorized explosives at off-airport facilities. [/su_column]

[su_column size=”1/2″]

[/su_column][/su_row]

[su_row]Some entities certified as Certified Cargo Screening Facilities (CCSFs) screen cargo by physical search, while others use technology approved by the TSA, such as X-rays or explosive trace detection devices. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may designate CCSP screening measures as qualified antiterrorism technology (QATT) under the Support Antiterrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act (the SAFETY Act). Once the DHS designates or certifies a technology, the seller of the technology enjoys certain liability protections under the SAFETY Act.[/su_row]

[su_row][su_column size=”1/2″]

[/su_column]

[su_column size=”1/2″]
This article describes the key cargo screening provisions of, and policies underpinning, the 9/11 Act and the SAFETY Act as well as the domestic programs the DHS and TSA have established thereunder. The discussion also considers whether a CCSF that fails to detect an explosive in cargo because of human error or negligence nonetheless may benefit from the SAFETY Act’s limits on liability. The article concludes that it is unlikely that human error would vitiate those liability protections. A CCSF that is negligent in its implementation of a designated QATT, however, may jeopardize its statutory protections from liability if its performance of cargo screening departs significantly from the specific methodology that provided the basis for its designation or certification by the DHS.

[/su_column][/su_row]

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE