Aviation and Airport

Congress offers relief to Washington State cherries growers
Congressional mandate, going into effect last Monday, requiring 100 percent screening of cargo on passenger planes, threated Washington State cherries grower; Congress offers growers relief
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House passes TSA authorization, tells agency to consult GA
The House of Representatives the Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act; bill sends a message to TSA to increase general aviation (GA) industry participation on security initiatives
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House limits whole body imaging
Worries about privacy lead Congress to vote, 310-118, to ban whole body imaging at airports; the bill would ban TSA from using whole-body imaging instead of metal detectors as the first-screening device at airports
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TSA bans Delta flights to African capitals
Citing security concerns, TSA told Delta Air Lines that airline would have to delay its planned launching of direct flights between Nairobi and Atlanta via Dakar
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IG: TSA's financial data jeopardized by lax controls
Inspector General reports finds that TSA’s financial statements are vulnerable to tampering; TSA does not review computer accounts to ensure people who have left the agency are locked out, and does not check the privileges associated with each active account regularly to ensure that level of access remains necessary
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Puffer machine, RIP
The puffer machines were once thought of as a good solution for airport security: passengers would walk through a portal in which a blast of air would dislodge particles off their clothes and bodies to detect traces of explosives; things have not worked out, and TSA pulls the plug on the futuristic device
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Auto-EDS explosive detection system to be tested at Waco airport
The Transportation Security Administration has chosen two small airports — Waco Regional Airport in Texas and Hyannisport, Massachuseets — to test a new explosive detection system
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New security measures on passenger planes may hurt cherries growers
About a quarter of the cherries grown in Washington state — some 1.3 million 20-pound boxes — are flown in the cargo hull of passenger planes to Pacific Rim countries like Japan and Korea; growers of highly perishable crops like cherries worry that a new requirement that all cargo on U.S. passenger flights undergo a security scan could create lengthy delays, leaving crops to rot in hangars as they await inspection
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Heavier passengers to pay more for flying
Air cargo flies this way: if something is twice the weight, you pay twice as much; airline industry analysts say that the day of passengers paying according to their weight may not be far
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London airport in trials of facial recognition security
Stansted Airport outside London is testing security gates with facial recognition software as the first part of an eventual roll out of the new security gates to ten more U.K. airports
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Secure Flight launches today
Secure Flight is the third version — you may recall CAPPS and CAPPS II — of the U.S. federal government’s decade-old effort to screen commercial airline passengers for risk against terrorist watch lists; it launches today
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Initial $50 million of stimulus package for airport security awarded
DHS announced the award of the first $50 million out of a total of $1 billion made available by the stimulus package for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA); money will fund explosive detection systems and advanced technology X-ray units that will streamline baggage screening at U.S. airports
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Raytheon awarded Nextgen Air Transportation System contract
Contract calls for Raytheon to study the Nextgen integrated communications, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) architecture and determine the NAS’s needs for 2018 to 2025
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Canada bolsters air travel security
The government in Ottawa announced $350-million in funding to boost security at airports across the country
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DoJ's IG criticizes DHS terrorist Watch List
Inspector General says Watch List is flawed; FBI was also slow in removing names that should not have been on the list
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