Security is About to Crack Down on Electronics
 

FAA Issues New Search Guidelines

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The government has provided new guidance for the nation's airlines regarding the searches of all electronic devices, according to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Paul Turk.

Turk said the FAA issued additional guidance to airlines in the past week regarding searches of all electronic devices. He said that -- among other devices -- pagers, cell phones, computers, even electric toothbrushes would be subject to possible examination before boarding flights.

Besides basic x-raying scrutiny, a source said some devices would also be subjected to explosive trace detector testing, or ETD, in which a screening agent wipes a swab on the device and places it in an analysis machine. The machine tests the swab for explosives and produces a printout that can identify the traces of explosives found, if any.

Some passengers at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport said the inspection of the devices caused long delays Saturday morning.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TRAVEL/NEWS/...nce/index.html

As of 10 minutes ago, security was still the same at Narita, despite all my electronics. Same at BKK this morning. Hopefully this 'guidance' won't make it too far outside the US.

Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!

Does this mean we have been flying with the potential for bombs in these devices all these years? 60 million people flying a month, and any one of them could have hidden a bomb in these devices! Oh no! How have we managed to survive this long?

Absurdity without end...

Is this Mineta's way of getting even for all that time he was imprisoned as a child in the Japanese internment camp during WWII?

'Cause if it had been me, who knows what kind of rules I might eventually inflict on my fellow Americans if given the opportunity? Especially when my rules aren't published as lawful regulations but instead are deemed to be security secrets. Not too many people have such vast power to control the minutae of daily life.

Directing our focus toward objects instead of bad people makes us no safer and would not prevent a repeat.

[This message has been edited by FWAAA (edited 02-03-2002).]

You should apologize for that crudity, or better yet, remove it.

No, but perhaps it shows all of us here what you think about people of Japanese descent.



[This message has been edited by flytoeat (edited 02-03-2002).]

Fly naked and carry nothing.. (except then, the NotSoBright rubber glove team will start cavity searches)

I haven't had any problems with the security screeners, maybe that's because I treat them with respect and they return the favor.

The people I have problems with are the passengers:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/006293.html

d

i was stopped in mco on thurdsay because of one of those little cold pills wrapped in plastic and foil. i had 2 in my coat pocket and it set of the alarm.

------------------
f

do you use the foil to keep them cold?

You know *security* is getting out of hand when the list of what to leave at home is longer than the one for what you pack. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif

This just keeps getting more ridiculous.

Pretty soon, they are going to conclude that people could hide explosives in their body cavities and that they need to check for that. At least when this happens we'll honestly be able to call the security screeners a bunch of ***wipes then.

Haven't there already been cases of people hiding bombs in walkmans? I seem to remember something a bunch of years back where this happened or was stopped, but I don't remember the details.

d

Just an evil thought:

if I was a terrorist and wanted to disrupt American air travel and cost people and industries money-- I wouldn't go as far as blow up planes, etc.: just send my people with clean backgrounds on flights, with "explosive residue" on their otherwise clean shoes, electronics, etc. They would be eventually cleared, but the resulting slow-downs, delays, and mass cluster-f's would wreck as much havoc on the system as 9-11 did, and with little or no cost. If my people get hassled because of their headgear, appearance or "racial profiling": all the much better, a team of CAIR or ACLU attorneys would be standing by to cause even more trouble...