Oklahoma City FAA center to train baggage screening supervisors

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The first of 1,200 federal baggage screening supervisors arrived for training Monday in Oklahoma City. <br><br>Four groups of 300 will train over the next four weeks at the Mike

Monday, March 25th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The first of 1,200 federal baggage screening supervisors arrived for training Monday in Oklahoma City.

Four groups of 300 will train over the next four weeks at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center. They're expected to train and manage more than 30,000 screeners at 429 U.S. airports by November.

President Bush signed a law four months ago that puts baggage inspections under federal jurisdiction. The legislation created the Transportation Security Administration to prevent terrorism.

While in Oklahoma City, the managers will train specifically with detection devices such as X-ray machines, agency spokesman Paul Turk said.

Congressman Ernest Istook says he persuaded the government to hold the training at the Oklahoma City center instead of a Georgia training facility. He said the Monroney center was already the FAA's best training site.

``We wanted to make sure that we did not try to recreate the same capacity somewhere else,'' Istook said. ``That's good news for Oklahoma and good news for taxpayers around the country. It means we're more prudently using the resources we have to protect the traveling public.''

The government will pay for lodging for the trainees at nearby motels. The FAA center will provide meals and other services.

The center has the largest concentration of Transportation Department employees outside of Washington, D.C., center spokesman John Clabes said. More than 30,000 air traffic controllers, test pilots, inspectors and other FAA employees already train at the facility which has more than 50 buildings on 1,000 acres.

Turk said more bagging screening managers will be trained in Oklahoma City as job turnover occurs.