When did the US start WTMD usage
 

Anyone know what year the the US airports began requiring pax to submit to WTMD and carry-on baggage screening? And was it systemwide or phased in over time?

I seem to to recall early 70's - and I can still remember flts as a child where there was none at all.

Do today's WTMDs use the same technology? Are we still using the original machines?

WTMDs were introduced in the 70's after various airline hijackings. In December 1972, the FAA directed the airlines to begin searching passengers and their carry-ons prior to boarding. This immediately surfaced a variety of constitutional issues. Piedmont Airlines introduced the use of the magnometer or walk-thru metal detector as a means of expediting passenger searches. The technology for the magnometer originated from the logging camps. Pieces of metal inside of the logs would damage the saws, so a magnometer was used to detect metal still inside the logs to prevent that damage. Piedmont converted that into what is now the WTMD.

I don't know the history of the WTMDs, but the short answer is that the ones introduced in the 1970's were not the same as the ones used in 2001. The WTMDs you pass through today replaced the ones that existed in 2001 with newer technology. Contrary to popular belief, local TSA staff cannot adjust the sensitivity of these WTMDs. While all WTMDs may vary in sensitivity, the delta is trivial...again, contrary to popular beliefs posted in this forum.

So what is the reason the same clothing on me with nothing in my pockets on the same day will set off a detector in one airport but not another?

Is it deployment? Am I close to the threshold so that small delta then matters? Is it not plugged in?

WTMD Questions
 

In a previous post Bart mentioned that the WTMD does not have a sensitivity adjustment. Then what causes the discrepancy? Why can I walk though one week with the same plastic watch, same belt, lack of jewelery and the same shoes and set it off and not set it off the next week? This is at the same station.

I have caught the TSA agents touching the WTMD as I walk through setting it off. If they are giving me the eye I may pretend to walk through and hesitate before getting close. It will still go off. They then point me to secondary and it will not go off as I walk through. I still get the secondary.

Why does it not go off when I go back out if I am asked to try again? This violates the symmetry principle of physics that state a force should work exactly the same from any direction?

If you have a chance try some of the above. Inquiring minds want to know. ;)

Since we have two threads running today with parallel questions, I'm merging this latest WTMD thread into the original.
Thanks.


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Cholula

Travel Safety/Security Forum Moderator

something that i've heard at almost every airport i've flown through:

"this never beeps, only at some airports"

:confused: ^

the first WTMD in the states was not in a airport. The idea to use a WTMD in a airport may have came from Alcatraz in S.F. There was a WTMD there to prevent the prisioners from stealing the utensils from the dining hall. The first walk thourgh's at the airport were the same ones logging camps used but placed upright. It was a tunnel type unit that looked like the sides were bulging out. World book encyclopedia's published in the eighty;s had a picture of the first kind of WTMD used in the airport.

Because it's true.

"never" & "some" are two very different statements.

to put it another way, "it never rings, only sometimes".

sure... :)

Earlier than 1972
 

I was working at LAX when they first moved the WTMD from the airport gates down to the bottom of the escalators (for those who know LAX layout).

That is, they were originally located at the entrance to the gate to the planes. Then, during the middle of the summer (I think it was 1971, but maybe 1972) they suddenly moved them down to the bottom of the escalator at the end of the walkway. (History - LAX was a single layer airport until the 80's. Those "lower level walkways" were the only walkways. Planes went to round terminals and could drive "over" the passenger walkway.)

At that time, any airport employee with a photo ID was exempt from screening. I was working as a busboy/waitress (first male waitress at LAX) and refused to come to work, unless I got a photo ID, because I wasn't getting on an airplane so, IMHO, there was no 4th Amendment basis to screen me. The head of security for Host, who was under instructions not to give photo ID to hourly employees (they cost $5 each) met with me, liked me, and said "I am not going to lose a good employee. You can have a Photo ID."

Is this a statement about the grammar of the people who are always in front of you every time you go through a CP or about WTMDs?

Could be that some airports had WTMDs and other screening methodologies prior to 1972; however, it was in December that year that the FAA mandated these searches for all commercial airlines.

more about the latter, but since you brought it up Originally Posted by LessO2
"Because it's true." :)

It must be difficult for you to live such a perfect life.