Originally Posted by
petaluma1
Will somebody please explain to me how these CT scanners are going to be able to determine if a liquid is explosive. Is use of these screeners going to mean that parents will no longer have to either open all their baby foods or face being sexually assaulted by TSA?
Rats. I read something this morning that is relevant to that, but I'll never find the link.
What I read (and shouldn't have been surprised): the manufacturer says these can be used to clear LGAs and laptops without removal but it is expected that TSA will continue to insist that non-Pre pax remove all LGAs and laptops even after the new machines are installed.
I suspect one of two things is going on:
1) TSA doesn't want to use the full benefits of these extraordinarily expensive machines that we will buy solely because of the laptop threat discovered a year or more ago because it will lessen the value of Precheck and fewer people will be motivated to sign up, or
2) TSA and the manufacturer both know that once again, TSA is spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for buggy equipment that doesn't actually do what they claim it will do.
In other words, nothing is likely to change for parents traveling with infants and/or breast milk any time soon.
Keep in mind, if these scanners were really all that (leave laptops and LGAs in bag), then TSA wouldn't need to be pushing the airlines (and indirectly, pax) to pony up for expensive new checkpoints (ATL) to speed up the process of pax disrobing and unpacking. Meanwhile, forcing non-Precheck pax to not only remove shoes and outwear and laptops and LGA, but eventually all food and paper, signals 1) TSA and/or the manufacturer are lying and the machines aren't that good or 2) they are that good but TSA still wants everyone to pay for Precheck, and they plan to do it by forcing non-Precheck people to unpack even more stuff.