Airport screeners failed to find most fake bombs, TSA says

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Screeners failed to find most of the fake bombs smuggled by plainclothes investigators through checkpoints at two major airports from late 2005 until last fall, the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday.

Investigators successfully smuggled 75 percent of the fake bombs through checkpoints at Los Angeles International Airport in California, and 60 percent through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in Illinois, according to a report obtained by USA Today. In tests at California's San Francisco International Airport, where a private company conducts inspections, 20 percent of the contraband made it through security.

Some 30,000 screeners, renamed as transportation security officers, underwent training in fall 2005 to detect such components. The TSA chief also increased weekly training from three to four hours, Howe said.