Airports to intensify passenger screenin
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| Fri, 09-17-2004 - 12:49pm |
Just as a warning to anyone traveling in the near future. Gee, can't wait until everyone is required to strip naked just to enter the airport.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1152&slug=Airport%20Screening
Friday, September 17, 2004 · Last updated 6:37 a.m. PT
Airports to intensify passenger screenings
By LESLIE MILLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Security Administration announced Thursday that, starting next week, all airline passengers must take off jackets before passing through metal detectors. Also, more travelers will be subjected to pat-down searches and checks for explosives. U.S. officials got a wake-up call last month about the need to screen passengers for explosives when two Chechen women apparently carried bombs onto two Russian planes and blew them up.
Bags checked onto planes in the United States must pass through machines that can detect various kinds of explosives. But neither the walk-through metal detectors that passengers use on the way to gates nor the X-ray machines for carryon bags can detect plastic explosives.
Rafi Ron, former head of security at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport and now a security consultant in Washington, said the steps were "something we've been expecting for too long, but finally it's coming."
Screeners will advise passengers of the new procedures when they put their carryon bags on the conveyor belt, agency spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said.
Every passenger selected for secondary screening after passing through metal detectors will have their carryon items subjected to checks by explosives trace detectors.
Screeners also have more discretion to conduct pat-down searches and check carryon bags for bombs.
Air Travelers Association President David Stempler said the changes are a good idea, though some passengers could be upset by hand searches.
"Given the extraordinary need for it - given the recent bombing of the planes in Russia, heightened security alerts, tension leading up to the election - I think these are necessary evils that passengers have to put up with," he said.
The Sept. 11 commission recommended in its final report that the government make it a priority to improve the ability to detect explosives on passengers at security checkpoints.
"As a start, each individual selected for special screening should be screened for explosives," the report said.
The agency also is testing walk-through bomb-detection machines at five airports. Document scanners that can pick up explosives residue on boarding passes and IDs are being tested at Washington Reagan National Airport.
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On the Net:
Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov







And yet...while we may be 'safer' getting on the airplane, it may be our own systems that make the takeoff/flight/landing unsafe!
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1151&slug=FAA%20Budget
Thursday, September 16, 2004 · Last updated 8:20 p.m. PT
White House wants to cut FAA budget
By LESLIE MILLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration wants to trim the Federal Aviation Administration's budget for buying new air traffic control equipment at a time when more planes are in the air.
Air traffic controllers argue that more backup equipment could have mitigated the shutdown of a radio system at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday that left controllers unable to talk to pilots and caused a ripple effect of delays across the country.
Controllers have been asking the FAA for another backup radio system for years, said Hamid Ghaffari, president of the local air traffic controllers union in Los Angeles.
"The response was, 'We don't have the funding,'" Ghaffari said.
The loss of voice contact with pilots caused at least five incidents where planes flew dangerously close to each other and delayed or canceled hundreds of flights.
FAA spokesman Greg Martin said the Los Angeles air traffic control center already has two backup systems.
Sept. 2 was the busiest day ever for the U.S. air traffic control system. The FAA forecasts a 24 percent increase in the number of planes in the sky - including passenger and cargo planes, general aviation and military aircraft - between this year and 2015.
But the administration has proposed cutting next year's FAA budget for equipment and facilities by 12.6 percent, from $2.862 billion to $2.5 billion. Both the House and the Senate have gone along with that figure so far in the budget process.
"We're investing the taxpayers' money wisely in systems that will have maximum benefits in minimal time," said Martin. Some programs have been deferred because there isn't a pressing need for them in the next decade, he said. Those programs are in the beginning stages of development.
Air traffic controllers fear if Congress goes along with the cut it will force them to work with outdated equipment longer and prevent new backup systems from being installed.
Tom Brantley, president of the Professional Airways Systems Specialists union, said the systems that keep track of the planes in the centers between airport towers will soon reach their capacity.
"Cutting the budget by almost 14 percent is insane," said Brantley, who represents the people who maintain air traffic control equipment. "Seventy percent of the systems out there are in need of upgrade or replacement."
The FAA's Martin said that number doesn't reflect reality. "There's no major system out there that's older than 9 years old. Systems have either been replaced or are currently in the process of being replaced."
Ruth Marlin, executive vice president of the National Air Traffic Control Association, predicted a return to the late 1980s, when outages at air traffic control facilities were more common.
"Air traffic control modernization has got to be constant," she said. "It's a continual process."
Buildings are another problem, Marlin said. One air traffic control center is sinking. Another has mold on the walls. Some leak.
"As we see our buildings degrade, we lose the infrastructure that protects the system," Marlin said.
Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, ranking Democrat on the House aviation subcommittee, said the administration is scrimping on equipment needed to meet the growing air traffic demands.
"They're driving the public air traffic control system toward a cliff," said DeFazio.
He said he found it "extraordinary" that the Los Angeles Air Traffic Control Center lacks a redundant backup system. "Tax cuts won't fix the air traffic control system," he said.
Rep. John Mica, chairman of the subcommittee, said the FAA can update the national air traffic control system with fewer dollars if it takes a more businesslike approach to developing technology.
"They spend a great deal of time trying to change the technology. By the time they change it, the private sector comes up with off-the shelf-technology or new technology that does a better job," said Mica, R-Fla.
"I think we can do more with less," he said.
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Federal Aviation Administration: http://www.faa.gov
Edited 9/17/2004 3:15 pm ET ET by baileyhouse
"to strip naked just to enter the airport" LOL That's a nasty visual!
The last time I flew, I was wearing a bulky cardigan with a camisole underneath. At security they of course made me take off my shoes, but then they asked me to remove my sweater too. The camisole definately wasn't something I would normally wear out in public, let alone traveling with business associates - I considered it to be more of an undergarment. I told the security guy if he wanted me to take anything else off he was going to have to buy me a drink.
Maybe that's why that's the last time I flew...
Just FYI...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Airport%20Explosives%20Test
Thursday, September 23, 2004 · Last updated 6:05 a.m. PT
Document scanners make debut at airports
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO -- A new device that scans documents for traces of explosives has made its debut at four of the nation's busiest airports, where officials will use it to screen selected passengers.
Federal security screeners started testing the equipment Wednesday at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
It is also being used at Los Angeles International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Washington Reagan National Airport to detect chemical residue on the surface of items such as wallets, passports and airline boarding passes.
Not all passengers will be required to go through the document screening. It will be used for passengers selected by security workers and those who set off alarms at checkpoints, said Michael Zunk, federal security director for the Transportation Security Administration at O'Hare.
Dozens of chemicals could trigger the scanners, including nitroglycerin taken by heart patients, fertilizer and gunpowder residue.
"If you trigger the device, you will go through a questioning process as to what have you touched, where have you been, what have you done?" Zunk said.
The TSA is spending $300,000 to deploy a scanner at each of the airports, agency spokeswoman Amy von Walter said.
After a 30-day pilot program, officials will weigh whether to buy scanners for all the nation's 429 commercial airports.
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On the Net:
Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov
ROTFLOL!!