Holly Fournier

The Detroit News

Twenty years after killing his wife and unborn baby, Gregory Green was granted Transportation Security Administration clearance and worked for LSG Sky Chefs at Detroit Metro Airport for the past year, officials said.

Green is back in jail Friday on charges that he bound and tortured his new wife, Faith Green, early Wednesday before making her watch him fatally shoot her two older children from a previous relationship. He also is suspected of killing the couple’s two younger daughters by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Green previously spent 16 years in prison for fatally stabbing his former wife Tonya Green, who was six months pregnant. The July 14, 1991, attack also killed their unborn child.

Green in 1991 called police after the attack to report the incident; police say he did the same after Wednesday’s slayings. He pleaded no contest in 1992 and received a 15-25-year sentence.

He was released in 2008 on his fifth attempt at parole, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. He was on probation until 2010.

Despite his violent past, Green gained TSA security clearance and landed a job with LSG Sky Chefs because more than 10 years had elapsed since his conviction, officials said Friday.

“We are shocked and saddened by this tragic event that involved Gregory Green,” LSG Sky Chefs officials said in a statement. “Mr. Green has been an employee of our company for approximately one year.

“We follow all local, state and federal guidelines on employment records accordingly. Our employees are subject to background checks by our company and the TSA.

“We performed a 10-year period background check, and it did not indicate any issues with Mr. Green during that time frame,” officials continued in the statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of this tragic event.”

LSG Sky Chef provides "catering services" to airlines at Metro, according to the company.

"This includes delivering meals to flights and removing used items from aircraft. Mr. Green was a driver with our company and had TSA clearance to be in secured areas of the airport," officials said in a second statement released Friday.

TSA officials said they look for convictions on various offenses within 10 years of an individual’s application for a “security identification display area” badge, which allows employees into certain secured areas of airports.

However, Green’s release dates from incarceration in 2008 and probation in 2010 both fell well within the TSA and LSG Sky Chefs time frame for background checks. It was not immediately clear Friday if either organization discovered Green’s imprisonment and probation during their check into his history.

Detroit Metro Airport officials on Friday confirmed Green worked at the airport for LSG Sky Chefs but was not an employee for the airport authority itself.

“At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, our top priority is the safety and security of our 33 million customers and 18,000 employees and contractors,” airport officials said in a statement. “We follow federal, state and local security regulations pertaining to screening and background checks of airport employees and contractors.”

A lengthy list of “disqualifying criminal offenses” for those applying for TSA clearance includes murder as well as aircraft piracy, carrying a weapon or explosive aboard an aircraft, espionage, inciting a rebellion, treason and violence at international airports.

But like Green’s murder conviction, all offenses are considered disqualifying only “if the individual has been convicted, or found not guilty of by reason of insanity … during the 10 years before the date of the individual’s application.”

HFournier@detroitnews.com

(313) 223-4616

Twitter: @HollyPFournier