PITTSBURGH -- Because of the tragic events that occurred during the past week, much media attention has been given to airport security.

Team 4 investigator Jim Parsons decided to check out the security at Pittsburgh International Airport.

The following is his report:

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Drive into the front of the airport and you can't miss the tightened security.

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Team 4 Investigates Airport Security

County police officers shooing vehicles away from the terminal. Security screeners preventing anyone without a ticket from entering the gate area.

But what about the back of the airport where service employees enter?

"The back gate -- you can bring a truckload of stuff in there (and) nobody would ever know, said former airline employee Tim Turrentine. "You could bring people in there. Security wouldn't know."

Until a month ago, Turrentine worked for a major airline delivering food to planes. Two of his co-workers, who are still employed as caterers by the airline, tell Team 4 off camera that nothing has changed since Turrentine left.

Team 4 took a look by entering off of Beers School Road.

US Airways maintenance is to the left. Straight ahead are the runways, the FAA tower and US Airways cargo. The commissary, or the food that Turrentine was talking about, is back there as well. As Parsons entered, no one arrived to stop him from going in or to ask who he was.

At the end of the road, Parsons found a lone security checkpoint where employees enter the airport runway area. Workers enter a security code in order to enter. A private security company employee is there to check ID badges. But Parsons never saw him inspect the inside of any vehicle. Remember, these people will be boarding planes.

"Come on up to the gate, swipe your card, show your badge and go. That's it. No checking of the trucks," Turrentine said. "That's the part that worries me the most -- they're not checking the trucks.

"Once you get through that gate, you're free to roam. You can get to a plane in a matter of a couple of football fields."

Parsons took his findings to the head of the airport.

"The airlines are responsible for that," said Kent George of the Airport Authority. "We don't check vans or the internal service vehicles because the vehicles are loaded by authorized personnel to the best of my knowledge, and it's taken from there to the aircraft directly."

Authorized personnel? Pilots are authorized personnel, too, but FAA regulations require them to go through metal detectors and their bags to go through X-ray machines. But not caterers or ramp employees.

"Security on the back needs to tighten up," Turrentine said. "There needs to be people back there. Just because you have a badge doesn't mean you're not a lunatic."

Airport officials said that everything Parsons did was allowed under FAA regulations.