BOSTON (AP) -- Logan International Airport, the departure point for two of the four planes hijacked Sept. 11, has one of the worst security records among the nation's major airports, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.
The newspaper, citing data recorded by the Federal Aviation Administration between 1991 and 2000, said the airport had the fifth-highest number of security violations, logging 531 violations.
Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport had the highest number at 1,218, followed by New York's John F. Kennedy with 876, San Francisco at 666 and Los Angeles with 554.
But Logan, the nation's 18th busiest airport, was cited far more often for weapons _ real and fake _ smuggled through security, the Globe said. FAA agents slipped 234 guns and inert hand grenades and bombs past guards or X-ray machines during the ten-year-period.
That is three times the number of violations at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, which has nearly three times as many passengers.
The FAA would not comment on the frequency of security testing, and the FAA records do not indicate agents test more frequently at Logan than other airports.
The two planes that crashed Sept. 11 into New York's World Trade Center departed from Logan. Investigators believe the hijackers used box cutters _ which were allowed under FAA rules and are now banned _ to commandeer the flights.
Virginia Buckingham, executive director of Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport, said the data suggest that the federal government should take over airport security functions.
``Even with the additional measures put in place since Sept. 11, through testing or just ignorance, it is clear dangerous items are still getting through, not just at Logan, but at airports around the country,'' she told the Globe.
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