Kip says "1000's of ways to attack"

TSA administrator Kip Hawley and his agency have had a tough week. Statements like this one don’t help:

“There are thousands of ways to attack, but if you put all of the resources at the checkpoint to make that bullet proof, [terrorists will] say thank you very much and go someplace else to get in, so you have to secure the entire environment at a basic level and then upgrade in an unexpected, unpredictable way,” Hawley said. “If they say the checkpoint is all buttoned down, then the attack comes through the perimeter, the attack comes in front of the airport, there is a [shoulder-fired rocket] attack.” - Congressional Quarterly

He seems to be saying, “Don’t worry too much about our sloppy and inefficient checkpoint screening  because something a lot  worse could happen.” Wow. I do agree that the TSA is good at being “unpredicatable” and I’d love to be able to “say thank you very much and go someplace else” at most airports.

You a TSA employee, or just happy to see me?

US Government Accountability Office investigators who conistently fooled the TSA are recommding more pat-downs and physical seraches of air traveleers:

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators testifying before Congress on Thursday said that more physical searches of passengers would be needed to reduce the chances that a terrorist can sneak a bomb onto an airplane. But air safety officials resisted the suggestion, saying American passengers dislike intrusive pat-downs.

The investigators smuggled the components of potentially devastating liquid bombs past checkpoints at 19 airports nationwide earlier this year, they testified. In the covert tests, they carried the elements of an improvised explosive device and a firebomb in carry-on luggage or on their bodies. - LA Times

Some in Congress are not pleased with the TSA’s performance:

“The problem is that the news is the same — it’s not getting better — and that’s unacceptable,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the Government Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which held the hearing.

Waxman called the TSA’s record on screening “embarrassing and dangerous” and warned (TSA head Kip) Hawley that the committee would ask the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, to conduct a similar test next year. He went on to chastise Hawley for seeming to “pooh-pooh” the results of the GAO investigations.

“You’re on notice,” Waxman said. “I want you to take this one seriously. I didn’t feel you took the first one seriously.”  - Read the entire LA Times story here.

USA Today’s account of the hearing provides no comfort:

Hawley downplayed (the report) that showed investigators were able to smuggle liquid explosives and detonators past security. He said some bomb components investigators brought on airplanes this year are too weak to blow up a plane.

“Frankly, some of the stuff we saw here is not a concern. Some of it is a concern,” Hawley said after GAO officials played a videotape of the bomb parts they used in the probe being detonated in cars.

John Cooney, the GAO’s assistant director for forensic audits and special investigations, said the bomb parts “placed in an appropriate place on an aircraft could possibly do catastrophic damage.”

Lawmakers from both parties criticized the TSA and revealed that during another series of covert tests in 2006, GAO investigators slipped bomb parts past screeners in each of their 21 attempts.

“That’s an embarrassing and dangerous record,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held Thursday’s hearing.

“This is unfortunately a record of failure,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.

The maddening thing is that the TSA’s incompetence is going to lead to more hassle - pat-downs and who-knows-what-else. Wouldn’t it be better to start over and design an effective system of security screening rather than just add to the existing regimen - which is undoubtedly what they’ll do?  I appreciate the diffuculty of the task and I’m glad we’ve had no more serious incidents, but government tends to perpetuate and add to its way of doing things rather than (pardon the pun) blowing them up and starting over.

More one-bag rule news from the UK

It sounds like the UK will ease its one-bag/no personal item rule in early 2008, but there is some waffle room for the authorities and some bureaucratic hoops involved: 

”From 7 January airports will be able to seek permission to let more than one item of hand luggage be taken on board flights by passengers.

Size restrictions on liquids and cabin luggage will remain and Ms Kelly said it was “not about relaxing” security.

In order to be able to relax the “one bag rule”, airports will have to apply to the Department for Transport and prove they have the necessary screening measures to handle extra cabin luggage.” - BBC

UK one-bag rule on the way out!

UK PM Gordon Brown has good news for the carry-on traveler:

Releasing a government report to the House of Commons, Mr. Brown also said British airports would begin relaxing their rules on hand luggage so that in some airports passengers would be able to take two carry-on bags beginning in 2008. Since a foiled plan to blow up trans-Atlantic planes in the summer of 2006, passengers at British airports have been restricted to one carry-on bag. - The New York Times

Incovenience in perspective: Shoe news

CBS reports that the Feds still view shoes as a real threat:

The joint FBI-Homeland Security bulletin, obtained by CBS News today, bluntly warns that terrorists are still working to use “modified footwear as a concealment method for explosive devices,” CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports.

The alert follows the discovery of bomb detonators - expertly hidden in the hollowed-out soles of this pair of shoes - found aboard a European bus last month.

Intelligence officials say the shoes were not being worn at the time, but instead were being used, as the document says, “to smuggle electric blasting caps across international borders for use in a terrorist attack.”

A hi-tech light at the end of the TSA tunnel?

Don’t thow away your 3-1-1 baggies just yet - but:

Passengers breezed through the security checkpoint. No fumbling to pull laptops out of carry-ons. No dumping those quart baggies of liquids and gels into plastic bins.

Shoes still had to come off, but otherwise it was just a matter of putting packed bags through a futuristic MRI-like scanner and going on their way.

 Dozens of randomly selected Southwest Airlines passengers were sent yesterday through a checkpoint at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport that had a new automatic explosives-detection system being tested by the federal Transportation Security Administration. - from The Baltimore Sun

Better days may be ahead on the air travelers trail. 

United considers luggage ransom

United Airlines has always been good at holding luggage hostage. Now they may start charging ransom for early release:

United could soon charge customers a fee if they want their luggage to be unloaded off the plane first. That’s just one of the things being considered at United, where the Chicago Tribune (free registration) writes CEO Glenn Tilton believes “his airline needs deep, wrenching changes to remain competitive.” The newspaper says Tilton “wants to pursue everything, from a merger” to the priority-baggage fee (OBOW ed. - guranteeing your luggage leaves the plane first) “as part of a major overhaul of the nation’s second-largest airline.” The Tribune says other ideas being considered include “curbside-to-curbside baggage service, fees to check a second bag and allowing mainstream passengers to ‘rent’ for a day the perks available to elite customers.”  - - From USA Today

“Rent” the perks of elite customers? How about renting some customer service? 

High insecurity

Is the airport security hassle we endure all for naught?

WASHINGTON — Security screeners at two of the nation’s busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.

While the airport security system seems to have been fantastically effective since 2001 - inasmuch as there have been no major incidents - the question must be asked: Have we been safe because of the system or in spite of the system?

Soggy socks on cold concrete - The No-Shoes Blues

The shoeless security shuffle continues, even if you are a member of the Clear registered traveler program:

You will still have to take your shoes off at the airport checkpoint. The Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday that it had rejected the use of a General Electric shoe-scanning machine that was supposed to provide a central benefit for members of the Clear version of the Registered Traveler program: the ability to pass through security with their shoes on. The machine would instead have scanned the shoes electronically for weapons or explosives. - from the International Herald-Tribune

Slip-ons and flip-flops are here to stay. 

Here’s the TSA’s bulletin on the shoe scanner non-starter. 

 

Break out the foil underwear - INVASION OF THE BODYSCANNERS

The TSA’s new “backscatter” x-ray body scanners can see right through your clothes, but they wouldn’t dare ogle you:

“The machines are capable of showing passengers’ bodily parts, but TSA says that, due to privacy concerns, they will not. All of the machines will use software that will blur images of passengers, so screeners will see weapons but only fuzzy images of people’s bodies.” - so they said in USA Today

Most of us probably look better on “fuzzy”. The ACLU (who I don’t always admire) has called the technique a  “virtual strip search”. 

TSA moving away from "ban everything" approach?

From CQ.com’s story about the remote-control toy ban: 

TSA is attempting to move away from simply running down a checklist of permissible and banned items, and more toward a security posture that gives transportation security officers more discretion to make judgement calls at security checkpoints, she added. Taking this approach allows TSA’s security personnel more flexibility when scanning for ever-evolving terrorist threats.

“If we just take the approach of banning everything that we think could be a problem, then we would be left with people without carry-ons,” Howe said. “So the idea is to share the information with the workforce and the public and just let people know that it is something that we are concerned about.”

TSA not toying about this time

The TSA has banned radio-controlled toys from carry-on luggage - with good reason it seems:

‘In the South Carolina case, the authorities found a 12-minute Arabic-language videotape on the computer of Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, a student at University of South Florida, that had been uploaded to YouTube. In it, a narrator explains how to convert a toy car into a detonator, an affidavit filed in federal court Thursday says.’ - read the whole story from iht.com

Quit shouting at my shampoo!

The eggheads at Los Alamos have come up with another hi-tech gadget that may one day simplify the air travel experience. But, unfortunately, it yells at you…

Scientists at New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory are developing a new type of scanner that can distinguish liquids — blaring out a warning for bad ones, like explosives, while letting through good ones, like water.

The device can already detect about 50 liquids and, when commercialized, should cost about the same as a normal airport X-ray scanner, said Michelle Espy, a Los Alamos scientist.

“I hope this makes air travel easier and safer for people,” Espy said. “I know I’m looking forward to it when I’m traveling.”

Read the whole story here from redding.com

Joltin' Joe's luggage lament

Uber-traveller Joe Brancatelli sizes up the state of baggage handling (and losing) and states the obvious:

It isn’t rocket science to suggest that the best way to guarantee an airline won’t lose your luggage is not to give it to the airline in the first place. On most business trips to most places, most of us should be able to make do with the luggage we’re permitted to carry onboard.

Unfortunately, carry-on rules remain maddeningly inconsistent. The government says we “are allowed one carry-on in addition to one personal item such as a laptop computer, purse, small backpack, and briefcase or camera case.” But this so-called “one plus one” rule leaves a lot to the discretion of carriers. They determine the size and weight of the bags you’re permitted to carry on and, on the increasingly ubiquitous small planes known as regional jets, airlines reserve the right to limit you to one carry-on bag.

Read “Luggage Limbo” from Conde Nast’s portfolio.com. 

Tenacious Joe on insecurity

“Six years to the day after 9/11, business travelers wrestle with an ugly reality: Our most intractable foe may be the federal bureaucracy we created to keep our airports and airplanes safe.” - the words of no-holds-barred Joe Brancatelli, the pit bull travelers’ advocate. Read his column here. You can read his often-scathing air travel blog here.

Outgoing FAA chief warns airlines of intervention

“I predict passengers will continue to be fed up with delays, and that’s got to be taken more seriously by our airlines,” Blakey said in a speech before the Aero Club of Washington. Her five-year term as FAA administrator ends Thursday.

“If the airlines don’t address this voluntarily, don’t be surprised when the government steps in,” she said. — USA TODAY

This would of course sound more ominous coming from an incoming official, but it’s good that someone is rattling the airlines’ cages.

The Cranky Flier dubs Blakey as “Captain Obvious” for the above statement. 

Real-time, map-based flight tracker

FlightStats Launches Map-Based Flight Tracker
Google® Maps Mash-up Tracks Airline Flights Over North America

PORTLAND, Ore. – September 11, 2007 – Do you know where your loved ones are?
Tracking the location of traveling family members, bosses, and colleagues
just got a lot easier with FlightStats’ introduction of a map-based flight
tracker. All you need to know is what airline they’re using and their
departure or arrival cities to zero in on the precise geographic position
and estimated arrival time of their flight. The new flight tracker combines
the power of Google® Maps with FlightStats’ up-to-the minute flight data to
show you the exact location of the flight over a standard, satellite or
hybrid map of North America.

The interactive Web application refreshes automatically as the flight
progresses. Companion screens show weather information in both the arrival
and departure cities and alert you to any airport delays that might affect
the flight. Flight information displayed below the map includes the
historical on-time arrival rating for the monitored flight, its scheduled
and actual departure time, and its estimated arrival time. Viewers can click
through to get more flight details and set up alerts to deliver updates on
the flight to a mobile phone or PC. To track a flight visit:

http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightTracker/flightTracker.do

Use of the tracker is free and requires no login to track a flight. The
advertising-supported tracker is also available for free syndication on
travel sites, weather sites, blogs and personal web pages. FlightStats
offers other syndicated content such as interactive airport delay maps,
weather applications and flight status/flight alert applications from:

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Syndication/syndication.do

—RELEASE FROM FLIGHTSTATS.COM 

Good news, bad news

Two stories from the weekend are worth reading for the serious air traveler. This New York Times piece reminds us that 70% of US flights are now late but offers some coping stragegies and links to flight intelligence sites. USA Today reports on a new x-ray machine which may speed security checkpoints by necessitating less hand inspection and segregation of devices like laptops from the rest of our carryon luggage. It sounds like this system which we reported on some time ago.

Beware the Virgin

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic airline has what are probably the most restrictive carryon rules of any carrier flying out of the US:

Passengers departing from US airports are permitted to carry one item of cabin baggage each. Cabin baggage must not exceed a maximum length of 56 cm, width of 36 cm and depth of 23 cm including wheels, handles, side pockets etc. Other bags, such as handbags, may be carried within the single item of cabin baggage. All items will be x-ray screened and must not exceed 6 kilos in weight in Economy and Premium Economy, and 8 kilos in Upper Class. — from virgin-atlantic.com

This essentially the BAA rule (everything in one bag) plus the ridiculous 6kg (that’s 13.2 pounds) restriction. It’s certainly possible to travel with under 13 pounds in one bag — I do — but it’s going to be a real pain for most of us. At least the fares are cheap. I’ll bet Richard Branson’s hair weight more than 6kg.

Poor Heathrow

A day in the life of hated Heathrow is the subject of this Times of London story. Read it and you’ll never check another bag as long as you live. Some highlights:

The phrase “Heathrow hassle” has entered the lexicon, and commentators have vied to produce the most colourful put-downs – a “really expensive mall with planes”, “customer service reminiscent of the worst days of nationalised British Rail”, scenes “reminiscent of Nairobi slums”. Heathrow has also been described as an airport “bursting at the seams” and “held together by sticking plaster” – and that came from Tony Douglas before he resigned as BAA’s chief executive last month…

In the Terminal 1 reclaim areas we find the pile of 300 bags sitting unattended in a corner. Richard Wazacz, BAA’s 33-year-old head of logistic operations, admits that Heathrow’s baggage-handling record is “unacceptable” but – unsurprisingly – he insists that the airlines are to blame.

Wazacz takes us into a control room lined with screens showing bags whizzing along miles of subterranean conveyor belts before tipping into baggage chutes. He shows us a map of the belts that looks like tangled spaghetti. We visit a thunderous cavern to watch bags descending an extraordinary helter-skelter that takes them 60 metres down into the bowels of Terminal 1, and from there along a mile-long tunnel to Terminal 4. It is a “stone-age” system, he concedes.

 AND - this just in: Today at Heathrow EVERY flight was delayed or late!