Baggage screening takes hold with only minor glitches

By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 02/02/03

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Flying from Los Angeles to Providence early last month, Faith Crisley of Needham was pleasantly surprised to find that the nation's new system for screening checked bags for explosives was working smoothly.

She checked in at the Southwest Airlines counter, where a federal security official ran a wand over her bags and never opened them. He found nothing amiss, so he allowed her to proceed with her baggage check-in. "It took about five minutes total," Crisley said. "It was no problem at all."

One month into the federal government's new procedures for checked-bag bomb detection, the dire predictions that emanated from many of the nation's airports have not come to pass. Passengers who have used close to a dozen of the nation's airports told the Globe they have not been inconvenienced in any way.

"The problems have not materialized," said Heather Rosenker, a spokeswoman for the US Transportation Security Administration. "We're getting real good at doing our job."

(Of course, that doesn't mean security is perfect. Last week, a passenger found a sharp tool in the seatback of his first-class seat on a United Airlines flight at Logan International Airport. Officials couldn't immediately explain how it got there.)

Many of the nation's larger airports had warned that the Jan. 1 deadline for inspecting each checked bag was impossible to meet without resorting to stopgap security measures likely to lead to congestion in air terminals and long delays for passengers.

But most airports, even those using such interim measures as bomb-sniffing dogs, hand searches, and explosive trace detection systems, have been able to process passengers smoothly. Rosenker said the longest waits for passengers have been about 10 minutes.

Even Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, one of the most vocal critics of the Jan. 1 deadline, has experienced relatively few problems. "We've had some backups, but they've been manageable backups," said Kevin Cox, senior executive vice president at the airport.

Cox said Dallas-Fort Worth and other airports weren't crying wolf about the potential for enormous delays. He said a catastrophe was averted when Congress late last year gave the Transportation Security Administration more flexibility in meeting the Jan. 1 deadline, allowing the use of alternative screening measures like bomb-sniffing dogs, hand searches, and systems that match bags and boarding passengers.

"It's that flexibility that we believe has kept the industry from grinding to a halt," Cox said.

Logan International Airport built the ideal type of inspection system. It crammed two years of construction into six months to install van-sized baggage-screening equipment linked with the existing bag-checking system. The system was designed so that bags could be checked for explosives unobtrusively behind the scenes without requiring passengers to do anything different.

George N. Naccara, federal security director at Logan, said the airport hasn't been able to use its bomb-detection machines as effectively as it would like, primarily because newly installed conveyor belts haven't worked as planned.

But Naccara said those problems are being worked out and the large detection machines are handling more bags each day, with the balance being tested using smaller explosive trace detection systems, which require the inspector to run a swab across the bag and then run the swab through an analyzer.

Naccara said he's very happy with how the larger explosive detection machines are working and pleased with how passengers are cooperating.

"It's amazing how well it's been received," Naccara said.

Packing concerns

While the bag-checking system has gone smoothly so far, it nevertheless has caused many passengers to change the way they pack.

Scott P. Warmkessel of Melrose, for example, goes to the Caribbean every year and in the past has always checked a tightly taped cooler of food that he and his wife could eat while they do initial housekeeping at a rented apartment.

Warmkessel wondered whether he could have the cooler inspected manually at check-in and then tape it to keep it secure.

Officials at the Transportation Security Administration said complying with Warmkessel's special inspection request was not possible. "It's difficult for us to make exceptions," said one official, who added that food in checked bags is discouraged but not prohibited.

Betsy Muench of Lexington said her family likes to fly to the Rockies for a camping trip, carefully packing duffel bags with equipment so fragile items are cushioned and space is conserved. "What happens if the screeners unpack a bag but can't get it all back in?" she asked.

Rosenker, the Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman, said repacking camping gear could be a problem. She suggested packing the gear in a larger bag for the flight and then repacking in smaller bags upon arrival.

Tony Vaccaro of Lynnfield was concerned about liability. He often brings along golf clubs and carries them in lockable, hard-sided cases. On a recent flight he was allowed to unlock the bags for an inspection and then relock them himself, but he was told that won't be permitted in the future.

"Don't get me wrong," Vaccaro said. "I appreciate all the new security, but I don't like leaving my cases unlocked so any vulture can help himself. There has to be a happy medium."

Unfortunately, there isn't. Security officials recommend keeping all bags unlocked for easy inspection. In the next few weeks, most of the nation's airports are expected to receive red plastic ties that passengers can use to secure their bags. If the bag needs to be inspected, officials say, they will snip the red tag off and reseal it with a blue one to let the passenger know it has been opened. Bruce Mohl can be reached by e-mail at mohl@globe.com.