A TSA officer at Elmira Corning Regional Airport hands a traveler’s ID back to him. (TSA photo)
HORSEHEADS, N.Y.— Officials from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the federalization of Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM) on Saturday.
The Elmira Corning Airport launched under TSA security oversight 20 years ago this weekend, on Oct. 29, 2002, when the security checkpoint was first staffed by federal TSA officers one year after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA) became law in November 2001, formally establishing the TSA. That fall, TSA consisted of about 100 people working at folding tables in the basement of Department of Transportation national office. Today, 20 years later, there are 430 federalized airports and a workforce of about 60,000 employees nationwide. TSA has a staff of approximately 24 employees who are assigned to work at Elmira. Four members of the TSA workforce have been working at ELM since the airport was federalized.
“The Transportation Security Administration was created 20 years ago, approximately one year after the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,” said Bart R. Johnson, TSA’s Federal Security Director for Elmira Corning Regional Airport and 12 other airports situated across the state. “The mission of the TSA is to protect our nation’s transportation systems by outmatching a threat that has evolved since September 11th.”
From the initial federalization as a TSA airport 20 years ago until the present day, the “professional and well trained Security Officer workforce here at Elmira Corning has focused on this mission every day, and is executing with state of the art equipment to prevent another terrorist attack from occurring,” Johnson said.
“I’m fortunate to work with such a dedicated group of TSA employees. We are also fortunate to have forged such strong partnerships with Chemung County, the airlines, and the Chemung County Sheriff’s Office, which has further strengthened and improved our security posture,” Johnson said.
In the intervening years since launching, TSA has developed and implemented strong security procedures, built a well-trained and highly skilled professional workforce, and introduced a wide array of state-of-the-art technologies to screen passengers, baggage and cargo.
Guided by an intelligence-based approach, today TSA is at the forefront of security technology and innovation. Technologies such as computed tomography, credential authentication technology and advanced imaging technology have greatly improved TSA’s detection and identity verification capabilities in ways the initial group of TSA employees could have only imagined 20 years ago.