• TSA will not expand private screening at airports

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has decided not to expand a program that would allow airports to replace government security screeners with private screeners; the news comes a month after the agency said it was “neutral” on the program; the private screening program became popular following the uproar over enhanced security pat-downs, which some travelers found intrusive — even though private screeners must follow the very same procedures government screeners do

  • Wheel-well passengers typically die

    The FAA has counted eighty-six cases of wheel-well stowaways in the United States since 1947, with the majority of them having occurred since the late 1990s; out of the cases reported by the FAA, eighteen people have survived; the TSA is mentioned to have been working collaboratively with the DHS Science and Technology Directorate to develop stowaway detection technologies

  • Moscow airport blast to force security rethinking

    Experts say it is significant that those who masterminded the Moscow attack chose to bomb the arrivals hall of the airport — Moscow’s busiest — because it was an easier target than the heavily-policed departures area; one expert says: “Arrivals has always been thought of as the ‘soft’ area of an airport —- Nobody is flying anywhere, the baggage has all been screened, because it has been on planes already, and crucially, people are leaving the airport. It’s very rare that you ever saw somebody carrying a bag in to arrivals”; airports may begin screening people who come to meet friends and family at arrivals; “What will happen is that the barrier will get further and further back, so no longer is it just at departures, but at the airport door, or in some cases on the road as you drive up to the terminal,” says the expert

  • Pointing lasers at aircraft a growing problem

    According to the FBI, in 2008 there were approximately 1,000 instances of people aiming laser pointers at the pilots of aircraft; in the eight month period from January to August of 2010, there were 1,700 reported incidents, demonstrating an increasing trend in the cases; the light emitted by a laser pointer can then be directed toward and seen by a pilot, causing visual impairment such as glare on the windshield of the aircraft as well as flash blindness and after-images like the kind that can be experienced after a flash picture is taken; even if the beam does not hit the pilot directly causing temporary blindness, the beam can be distracting at times when distractions can be deadly

  • Israel slow on aviation reform

    The vaunted Israeli airport security has come under criticism lately; the U.S. government has ranked Israel’s air safety among the world’s worst, lumping it with countries like Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, and Zimbabwe; the reason: although Israel has never experienced an airport crash, experts say civil aviation in the country was neglected for decades, with authorities slow to renovate runways and introduce state-of-the-art instrument landing and radar technology; crowded airspace shared by civil and military flights further complicates matters

  • Private security screeners an alternative to TSA at airports?

    Representative John Mica (R-Florida) believes that using private security screeners at airport checkpoints is more efficient and cheaper; last November Mica sent letters to roughly 200 airports urging them to switch from the TSA to private screeners; seventeen airports in the United States currently use private screeners, including San Francisco International, Kansas City International, and Jackson Hole; advocates believe that private security firms offer better customer service and perform better because they are more easily held accountable; others are more skeptical, citing the fact that private screeners must follow the same procedures as TSA screeners and that it is uncertain whether using them actually saves money

  • Woman wins payout after screener exposed her breasts

    U.S. woman was awarded a nominal sum from the government after a TSA pat down exposed her breasts; in May 2008, Lynsie Murley was singled out for an extended search during which agents pulled down her shirt and exposed her breasts; the agents then laughed and joked about the incident

  • TSA brings 100% cargo screening forward to 2011

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has brought forward its 100 per cent cargo screening target to 31 December 2011; the earliest possible implementation date for 100 per cent screening was initially thought to be 2013, given the complex challenges associated with screening international inbound cargo carried on passenger aircraft; now 100 per cent of the cargo that is uplifted on passenger aircraft bound for the United States must be screened by the end of this year

  • Napolitano says Israeli-style security is not suitable for U.S.

    DHS secretary Janet Napolitano is in Israel on a visit; during her private briefing with Israeli officials at Ben-Gurion Airport, they discussed cargo screening and how to stop non-metallic explosives, such as those used in the recent plots, from getting onto a plane; Napolitano was also briefed on other airport security measures used in Israel; Napolitano said, however, that what is effective in Israel, a nation of 7.3 million, would not necessarily work for 310 million Americans; Ben-Gurion is Israel’s only major international airport; the United States has 450 such facilities; about eleven million people pass through Israeli airports each year, while seventy times that many passengers go through American airports each year

  • More airports consider replacing TSA with private contractors

    Airports around the United States — including airports in Los Angeles, the Washington, D.C. metro area, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Orlando, Florida — are considering replacing the TSA with private security contractors; privatizing security will not affect cost or protocol, but could bolster efficiency and customer relations

  • Privacy pants for airport security

    “Privacy pants” would allow airport security personnel to do their job while keeping passengers’ privacy and dignity intact

  • Former Guyana politician sentenced in JFK terror plot

    Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana’s parliament, was sentenced to life in prison for participating in a plot to blow up the jet fuel supply tank system at JFK airport; the two other plotters are also of Guyanese origin: one, a former baggage handler at JFK, will be sentenced in late January; the other, Adnam Shukrijumah, has now been promoted to chief of al Qaeda’s global operations

  • Overflights over U.S. are not top-priority security concern

    Terrorists who are trying to exploit cargo planes to launch an attack on the United States may find a security weakness in screening of cargo planes flying over, though not into, the United States; planes that go over the United States but are not supposed to land here are not routinely screened according to U.S. standards; U.S. officials say terrorist networks are trying to exploit cargo planes because it is so much harder to get operatives onto U.S. flights with weapons or explosives; security experts say targeting overflights for protection is a waste of scarce resources; a former TSA intelligence official said that part of the reason behind the lesser concern with overflights is that the “vast majority” of overflights originate in Canada, and the Canadians know how to screen; it is “not some Third World country,” according to the official

  • TSA to pay special attention to insulated beverage containers

    TSA announced terrorists might use insulated beverage containers to conceal explosives, so in the coming days, passengers flying within and to the United States may notice additional security measures related to insulated beverage containers

  • Questions about TSA's approach to security technology

    The massive push to improve airport security in the United States after the attacks of 9/11 led to a gold rush in technology contracts for an industry that mushroomed almost overnight; since it was founded in 2001, the TSA has spent roughly $14 billion in more than 20,900 transactions with dozens of contractors; in addition to beefing up the fleets of X-ray machines and traditional security systems at airports nationwide, about $8 billion also paid for ambitious new technologies; critics question whether TSA was too eager to look for technological solutions to basic security problem, and willing to write checks for unproven products