Baggage screening at Logan enters a new age

With deadline at hand, will the system work?

By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 12/29/2002

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Through Herculean efforts, Logan International Airport is poised to meet a Jan. 1 federal deadline for screening every checked bag for explosives — and is doing so in a way that is expected to have minimal impact on travelers.

Cramming two years of constructionwork into six months, the Massachusetts Port Authority has worked around the clock to rig nearly three miles of bag conveyor belts, build 12 new bag rooms, install 38 van-size explosive detection machines, and do it all without interfering with ongoing airport operations.

But now that the construction deadline has been met, the real test comes: Will the system work as designed?

Massport officials, who have been testing the system for a week, are confident it will. They say customers will check their bags as they do now at airline counters or with sky caps and that the bomb detection effort will take place unobtrusively, behind the scenes.

"The customer will see no difference," said Massport's Christopher M. Gordon, director of capital programs and Logan modernization. "It should take only a couple of minutes for a bag to go through the bag room." In a worst-case scenario, he later added, a bag could take six to seven minutes in transit.

The $146 million construction effort has transformed Logan's baggage operation into a high-tech assembly line. Luggage first passes through one of the 39 explosive detection systems, which cost $1.2 million apiece and are designed to take a three-dimensional image of a bag's contents using technology similar to a medical CAT scan.

Officials at the federal Transportation Security Administration are tight-lipped about the capabilities of these machines, but they acknowledge they aren't foolproof. The machines and their operators, who are graduating from training programs at Logan at a rate of 25 a day, reportedly have a hard time

distinguishing between explosives and some relatively common substances, like chocolate, cheese, and honey.

If the machine or its human operator in a separate room detect no problems with a bag, it is sent on its way to the plane. But if the machine spots something suspicious, the bag is routed into a secure room where further inspections are conducted. The bag may be scanned by another machine, tested manually for traces of explosive materials, or opened and inspected by hand.

Owners of opened bags will learn of the search from a note tucked inside their luggage. Opened bags may also be wrapped with a special tape. To deter thefts, closed-circuit cameras will monitor the opening of all bags.

"I don't think that will happen very often," said George N. Naccara, federal security director at Logan, referring to the opening of bags by hand. "That's where it becomes time consuming and labor intensive."

Like Logan, Manchester Airport in New Hampshire is installing a bag-screening system that will be largely invisible to travelers. But, at many other airports around the country, bag screening will be much more intrusive.

At T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I., for example, 10 explosive detection system machines will be located right in the lobby, and two more will be out at the curb serving the sky caps. Bags will be fed into the machines by hand, and travelers will be required to wait while their bags are checked. Airport officials advise arriving at least two hours before departure.

Most of the nation's 429 commercial airports are still waiting for explosive detection machines or haven't had time to install them. These airports will be using interim bag-screening measures, including bomb-sniffing dogs and $40,000 explosive trace detection systems that chemically analyze a swab sample taken from a bag.

Many airport officials have warned that these interim measures will slow passenger check-ins and lead to bottlenecks in airline terminals. Gordon said Logan rejected using such interim measures because they would have been a nightmare for travelers to navigate.

Finding out in advance how each airport will handle bag screening isn't easy. "Every airport is going to be different," said Heather Rosenker, a spokeswoman for the US Transportation Security Administration. "Folks are going to experience different things at different airports."

Whatever bomb detection methods are used, security officials are urging passengers to think more carefully about how they pack their checked bags.

Naccara said passengers should leave their luggage unlocked so locks won't have to be broken if bags need to be opened. The Transportation Security Administration is planning to eventually provide padlock-like seals that can be easily opened in the event of a search.

He said packages should be left unwrapped and passengers should carry undeveloped film on board the plane and have it hand inspected. Undeveloped film stowed in checked bags will be damaged by the scanning machines.

James M. Loy, the undersecretary of transportation for security, has advised travelers to pack shoes last and store personal items like toothbrushes and shavers in clear plastic bags to speed inspections if bags need to be opened.

Loy also said books should be packed spread out instead of stacked and that no food or beverages should be placed in checked bags, apparently because they can generate false alarms.

While offering few details, federal security and airport officials say passengers can play a key role in making the new bag-screening systems work effectively. They are referring passengers to the Transportation Security Administration's Web site at www.tsatraveltips.us.

"If things are packed appropriately, things will run smoothly," said Patty Goldstein, a spokeswoman at T.F. Green Airport.

Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.