Rich Davey, the new CEO of Massport, says the midair collision last month in Washington prompted the agency to assess safety in Boston.
NBC10 Boston received a rare look inside the daily security briefing at Logan Airport where the TSA, Customs and Border Protection, FAA, FBI, state and local police along with the airlines all share information.
“Our number one job here is the safety and security of our passengers,” said Rich Davey, Massport's CEO. “We take that very seriously.”
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The daily morning meetings began immediately after the 9/11 terror attack and have been happening every day, ever since.
“It’s been consistently part of our fabric and DNA now to make sure that we are coordinating across all of the parties and the folks who make Logan work every day,” said Davey.
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Just two weeks ago this very group met in the wake of the mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and helicopter over Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Davey says they immediately reached out to DCA and began assessing their own safety here in Boston.
“Is there anything that occurred at Reagan that could occur here and should we be looking for lessons learned?” said Davey.
He said it is clear that air traffic control towers are understaffed nationwide.
“Whether that impacted or was a contributory factor in the incident or not, I don’t know, but it is a fact that they are understaffed so my hope is that Congress will come together and address that issue,” said Davey.
Davey, who started as Massport CEO in August, said Logan saw its busiest year yet with 43.5 million passengers in 2024.
“We have the highest passenger throughput here than ever before,” he said.
And he has some thoughts on how to handle that influx by screening some passengers before they even set foot inside the terminals.
His idea? To build TSA checkpoints inside Logan Express locations around the state. He said passengers could be screened before getting on a bus and then that bus would drop off at a location behind security. It's a move that could free up congestion in the departure halls.
“We’ve had some good conversations with TSA, but I think there’s a great opportunity to build this idea,” said Davey.
The idea is still in the concept phase. And as the airport continues to grow, safety remains top of mind.
“It is our top job and we take it incredibly serious and this is a very safe airport,” said Davey.
