11,866 pass revocations - one city.
 

By DON BABWIN, Associated Press

CHICAGO (October 19, 2001 8:51 p.m. EDT) - About 12,000 people will be denied access to secure areas at O'Hare International and Midway airports after they failed to renew their identification cards.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said Friday it deactivated the ID cards following a federally ordered evaluation of airport security. Some of the cards belonged to former employees and others to workers who didn't complete the revalidation process by Tuesday's deadline.

Aviation Department spokeswoman Monique Bond said they were trying to determine whether the 11,866 people who failed to go through the revalidation process had a legitimate reason for not complying. Police could be alerted about specific people depending on the results, she said.

The Federal Aviation Administration required the revalidation process at all airports after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The issue has become important amid concerns that box cutters used in the hijackings might have been planted by people with access to the airplanes rather than brought aboard by the hijackers. Bond said there is no indication of problems with Chicago employees and, given the massive cutbacks in the airline industry, she was not surprised by the number of cards deactivated. More than 35,000 employees of the two airports, airlines and contractors now have valid access cards to secure areas.

The FAA refused to say how many cards have been deactivated nationwide. A Denver airport spokesman said it deactivated 3,000 cards.

Chicago's numbers could be higher because they revalidated all airport workers, including restaurant employees, Bond said. Current employees whose cards were deactivated must go through a criminal background check before their cards will be considered valid, Bond said.