NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Security screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport are among the best in the nation when it comes to passing annual tests on checkpoint and bomb-detection machine procedures, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
More than 97 percent of the 1,234 screeners passed the tests, which were given between October and April; the agency said 32 screeners who twice failed exams on the procedures were either fired or allowed to resign.
Newark's pass rate is among the highest of the nation's 30 largest commercial airports and better than the airport did last year, Marcus Arroyo, TSA security director Newark Liberty International, told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Monday's newspapers.
''It is something to be quite proud of,'' Arroyo told the newspaper, which requested the figures. ''That's a credit to the maturity of the people who have remained with the TSA ... This is not a job that you master in six months.''
Newark was one of three airports used by the 9-11 hijackers. Flight 93 from Newark ultimately crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to regain control of the cockpit.
