I was chosen to go through one of those puffers at Boston's new Terminal A. The process took long enough and there was only one booth so not everybody could use it during crowded times.

They did not search my baggage. The only reason I could thiink of for being selected for this was wearing a bulky sweatshirt.

Travel tips:
http;//members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm

(They did not suggest I take my shoes off and I did not.)

If this is true (I've not seen the machine in action), I imagine there will be another rightful howl of protest from female travelers. I would presume that one is not allowed to hold one's blouse or skirt in place.

Another question: if one is stuck in this contraption for 60 seconds, how is one able to keep an eye on personal belongings?

And does one still have to remove one's shoes?

Ummm
 

You tell us; you're the one with all the TSA answers.

Going by your words, you question the labeling of the majority of the TSA's 45,000 employees as being goons. Obviously, you have some first-hand knowledge, and have met the majority of said 45,000 employees. I cannot say that I have done the same.

But for the people who haven't met the majority of the TSA workforce, like myself, my experiences and readings of them, both the people on the front lines and and the policy they have to execute (or arbitrarily modify), it will take a lot more to convince me to have a more favorable opinion, or justification, of this organization.



I'm just going by the TSA's own numbers. Sure, one could consider the simple division of number of claims against the number of employees as being borderline crude (defined in more ways than one). However, the TSA isn't very forthcoming about things, and those are the only numbers they want to release.

The TSA plays the PR hand whenever they can, starting with the ties and their appearance of their staff at the checkpoints, and if they're only going to divulge those vague numbers, those are the numbers I am going to stand by for right now. If I write the TSA, or their local DEN PR person Mike Fierberg, I highly doubt that I am going to find out the exact number of TSAers that have been disciplined or fired through incompetence or theft.


You're entitled to your analogy. If you want to play the game of one-upsmanship, you're more than welcome to play yourself.

I think you're confusing me with someone else. I never said the TSA staff are goons. I asked a question about it, but never said that.

By your words, you're saying that we should have every government agency hire people "representative of the population at large." When is the last time you've seen a Secret Service Agent with a 52" waistline running around near the president? How about an astronaut with only three of her or his limbs?

Special circumstances or qualifications for the specific job at hand, you say? That's my exact point about the TSA staff and their physical duties.

But also keep in mind that the TSA, as an organization, is less than fair in employees rights. Ask eyecue or Bart about the documents they had to sign before collecting their first paycheck. Not the ones about swearing themselves to secrecy about SSI, but the ones that kiss their rights goodbye.

Back on topic, I think these machines do have a lot of potential, though that 60 second wait per person, if true, doesn't seem workable.

red456 makes a good point about keeping an eye on your belongings - I hadn't thought of that.

What GE should have done with these devices is design them such that it was designed to scan dozens of people at once (with alarm positives resulting in more filtered screening). Of course given one device scanning one person requiring approximately 45 to 160 seconds of process time, GE's (deep-pocketed) customers (aka the government and the taxpaying base) will be buying a lot more machines if they are interested in keeping delays near present levels.

Oh god...

Look, TSA is not the only one that touches your precious baggage. TSA sends it out, it goes into a baggage loading facility where it is then loaded into the cute metal bins that go in the belly. Things go round and round on a long belt and is pulled by the airline crew.

Get off your high-horse pal. If you dont know how the system works, lets keep finger pointing to a minimum shall we?.

Thanks.

Can you imagine the hell it would cause if the machine alarms?

Full open on the dozen passengers, full pat-downs, searches.. you name it.

Forget that! One at a time please!

1. Was that question directed to you?

2. If I said that I wasn't the only one who handled my carry-on bag and I said my teenage son put his switchblade in there, would you believe me?

3. I'm not on any "high horse," I responded to an equally dumb question, because those source numbers came from the TSA themselves.

4. Take a laxative, buttercup. This is an internet message board. Complaint forms about my posts can be filled out by hitting ALT+F4.

1. Doesnt matter.

2. No. Not my problem, your should still be aware of who touches your bags and what is inside.

3. Claims are claims. I claimed I hit a pothole on a city street and it broke my suspension component. So? .. but in reality I hit a curb by accident.

4. Yea, thats amazing.


Thanks.

I had already thought of that, but a given alarm wouldn't necessarily deliver a worse outcome than what we are on track for now. It depends on how the filtering process worked and the refinement of the area scanner. Two or three area scanners and then two individual ones would be cheaper, no slower and result in greater pressure for the devices to be maintained properly and be more effective.

60 seconds is an exaggeration. The machines can handle passengers every 10 to 20 seconds, with 4-10 seconds of the time used for detection/analysis and the rest of the time for people to shuffle through.

Aside from the skirt lifting, this unit seems like a good innovation (and a good way to end undressing/shoe carnival/etc.). Perhaps GE could innovate and produce a unit that blows downwards instead of upwards? (Dearest GE- you can have that idea for free.)

Im sure GE thought of blowing downwards, but I would think that the floor is the dirtiest part of the machine. Therefor it may foul the filter system quickly. If it shoots upward, where the air is cleaner, it wont disturb it as much. Thats my basic theory.

I believe the real reason GE has the air shoot upwards has to do with convection; they're attempting to tease out particles that are already airborne via the body's convective currents (there due to body heat). Or so says GE's website, anyway.

I haven't yet witnessed a real-time observation of GE's device in action with real passengers, but if this and the "backscatter X-ray" became mandatory, there is no way process time with the current generation of devices will take less than 60 seconds. The X-ray device alone requires scans from multiple angles of a passenger in order to be meaningful and that requires some footwork manipulation that translates into a few minutes for first timers and no less than a couple of minutes for "professionals".