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SAN FRANCISCO — Some airport screeners who are part of a team that moves from airport to airport serving as models for the federal takeover of aviation security got as little as 15 minutes of training on how to screen baggage for bombs. 

The screeners, members of the Transportation Security Administration’s Mobile Screening Force, are checking baggage in Dallas, Providence, R.I., and Norfolk, Va. 

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday that some of the screeners working at the Norfolk airport were given “abbreviated training.” 

The federal Aviation and Transportation Security Act requires security screeners to have 40 hours of training in the classroom and 60 hours of training on the job. 

Transportation administration spokesman Greg Warren said screeners who check passengers are required to have 100 hours of training. He acknowledged that some members of the screening force “have had abbreviated training,” but said they were operating baggage screening machines and were not screening passengers. 

He said that eventually, all the members of the screening force will complete the training. 

“The level of training that they’ve received in how to run the equipment is adequate for the (Norfolk) pilot program,” Warren said. 

The manufacturers of the bomb detection machines recommend between two and six hours of training. Screeners at the Dallas and Providence airports say they received additional instruction in using the equipment. 

Gary Burns, a spokesman for Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee said the short training could lead to cracks in the security system. 

“If the people doing the job are saying they’re not getting enough training, I think any citizen would be concerned about that,” he said. 

The newspaper reports that the Norfolk screeners have said they were never tested or certified to operate bomb-detection equipment.