TSA Unveils Pilot Programs...For Pilots

No matter what your feelings are on whether or not flight deck crew members should have to be screened before they get to their aircraft, the TSA is still going to require it. So just get used to it. At least the TSA is now starting to come around with some innovative new approaches to getting pilots through the security checkpoints quickly and with little hassle. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) is teaming up with the TSA for a pilot screening program for pilots called CrewPass at Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport (BWI), Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) and Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE) in South Carolina. CrewPass is a dedicated line at the checkpoint for flight deck crewmembers with a kiosk where pilots enter their badge number. The kiosk then displays the pilot's photo (as seen below) which a TSA agent can use to match with the face of the pilot trying to pass.


Another system being used at BWI was developed by Southwest Airlines and uses special lane for pilots only as well but introduces biometrics to the equation. The pilots present a "clear key", which looks like a USB drive with a fingerprint scanner on it. After inserting the device and scanning their fingerprint, the pilot's photo is displayed for matching like in the device mentioned earlier for screener comparison. High tech, yet simple. While I'm sure the debate on whether or not pilots need to be checked will continue forever, at least in the mean time it's getting a little easier for pilots to avoid the pain and agony of the long and invasive checkpoint procedures.


[Evolution of Security]

Home to PointNiner

Get Ready to Strip at Reagan National (and other large airports)

Calling all passengers flying out of Reagan National (and other large airports), you will now be referred to as virtual strippers (like it or not). The TSA is introducing millimeter wave scanners at its checkpoints there and other airports nationwide.

Millimeter waves bring X-ray vision from the supernatural world and into airports. Passengers step into a booth whose cameras see through their clothes to photograph the body underneath. The photo process takes about 3 seconds. Then the photo is analyzed on a "remotely located" (TSA lingo) monitor by a trained screener, which takes another 45 seconds or so. The TSA assures that the screener watching the monitor will not see the passenger in person -- so as to make it okay to see someone virtually naked if they are not standing in your eyesight.

As you would expect, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) are all over this as. The ACLU claims the image resolution is high so the picture of the body presented to screeners is detailed enough to show genitalia.

Currently, only passengers the agency selects for the infamous "secondary screening" are scanned, and they can "choose" a pat-down instead. But the TSA seems to indicate this is what is coming, not as a choice, but as a requirement to pass through the checkpoint in the future.

TSA maintains that millimeter wave technology is safe because the scanning machines emit 10,000 times less energy than a cell phone. It plans to purchase and deploy 30 more millimeter wave machines this year.

I am not sure how I feel about this. Seems the risk of terrorism is pretty low for such a high and mighty agency to be yielding such power. Maybe this new machine, which seems more foolproof for the TSA screeners to use, will actually be useful since the TSA cannot seem to catch anything now anyway.

Home to PointNiner

Not everyone thrilled about TSA's new uniform

Remember that new uniform the TSA screeners are getting? Well they're being rolled out now and it seems that not everyone thinks its such a great idea. According to an article by USA Today an item of that uniform of particular contention is the new metal badge replacing the old uniform's embroidered badge. It seems as though airport police, the other toters of metal badges at airports, aren't too happy with TSA's new look. One of the reasons for the new uniforms, according to TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe is that "Some of our officers aren't respected". Well, that's nothing a shiny metal badge can't fix, right? One big problem seen by airport police is that unsuspecting travellers will go to TSA screeners for criminal or law enforcement matters according to Duane McGray of the Airport Law Enforcement Agencies Network, an airport police association. The real sworn law enforcement officers with firearms and arrest powers are not thrilled according to McGray who says they "It's another way of saying (to airport police), you're not important." Both the TSA and the Airport Law Enforcement Agencies Network admit there will be some growing pains with these new uniforms (and badges). Sounds like a battle of the power trips coming on here.

Home to PointNiner

Woman tries to take skeleton on flight

The AP is reporting that baggage screeners in Munich Germany stopped a woman yesterday who was travelling with the skeleton of her deceased brother in a plastic bag, crammed in her suitcase. The 62 year-old woman, travelling with her friend from Brazil to Italy told security officials she was just trying to fufill the last wishes of her brother, RIP, by having him buried in Italy. And just when did her late brother pass?.......11 years ago. Mmm, nice and fresh.