Baggage Scanners Ready for Debut

Air travelers may face more intrusions and inconvenience when the federal government’s requirement to screen all checked luggage goes into full effect Tuesday, experts in the aviation industry predict.

But massive gridlock appears unlikely because the additional scrutiny by Transportation Security Administration screeners should take no more than 10 minutes for most passengers, government and airport officials said. That should fit within the 90-minute check-in window that airlines already recommend for travelers with luggage.

“I think it’s going to go pretty smoothly,” said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, an advocacy group for passengers. The security agency “got a lot of kudos for its performance over Thanksgiving, and they have a great incentive not to let the progress they made slip away.”

Travel is usually light around the New Year’s holiday, so any problems with the luggage checks may not emerge until the volume of passengers picks up. Some airports may prove to be more of a bottleneck than others. Another uncertainty is the security administration’s lack of a written policy for compensating travelers if items are lost or damaged during searches.

Although screening all checked luggage with explosive-detection equipment is a milestone in trying to prevent terrorist attacks, aviation security is widely expected to remain a work in progress for years.

Much of the equipment rushed to airports may soon be rendered obsolete. Research is underway to find technology that is faster, more accurate and less bulky.

Other changes in the works include a “trusted traveler” program for those who pass background checks. Also, software developers are working on an expanded edition of a computerized passenger-profiling system used to screen reservations.

A year ago, after Congress imposed the luggage-screening deadline, even Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said it was unrealistic.

Now, in a major accomplishment for the security agency, most of the nation’s 429 commercial airports will have the bag-screening equipment installed and operating on time.

Congress recently gave the agency some wiggle room by allowing it to grant extensions at airports that could not meet the deadline. These facilities are expected to provide comparable security by using other measures, such as bomb-sniffing dogs, hand searches and assurances that a bag gets pulled from the cargo hold if its owner fails to board the flight.

All airports in Southern California have announced that they will have new luggage-screening technology ready in time and will not require any waivers.

Around the country, fewer than 20 airports are expected to receive extensions, although they are likely to be large facilities such as Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Denver International Airport.

The satisfaction of making the deadline may be tempered in coming years by the cost of replacing much of the equipment.

The security administration “has been so totally engrossed in meeting their deadlines that they have not taken the time to look for technology that would let them do the job with fewer people and not lessen security,” said Douglas Laird, an aviation consultant and former security chief for Northwest Airlines.

Security officials acknowledge that meeting the year-end deadline will be only a first step, but they say they had no other option. Lawmakers were not about to grant an across-the-board extension. And more importantly, the air transportation system remained under the threat of a terrorist attack.

James M. Loy, head of the security agency, said that Tuesday is not the finish line.

“What we want is the next-generation detection capability,” Loy told reporters recently. “I have every expectation that American ingenuity ... will produce a better mousetrap.”

For now, the security administration is relying on two kinds of technology: CT scanners similar to those used to find tumors in the human body, and trace detection units that can pick up residues left by explosives.

The agency plans to install more than 1,000 CT machines, with a price tag of $1 million apiece, and about 4,600 trace detection units, at about $45,000 each. The federal government pays for the machines and their installation, while airports have been covering the cost of renovations to house the equipment.

CT machines scan the insides of closed bags while an operator scrutinizes images on a screen to resolve questions about suspicious items. The trace units measure for explosive residue on a swab that has been touched to the outside of a closed bag or the contents of an open one.

Both devices have drawbacks. The minivan-size CT scanners have a false alarm rate of about 30%. Using trace units, a high proportion of bags must be opened -- and their contents swabbed -- to ensure a credible level of deterrence. Last week, the security agency asked travelers to leave their luggage unlocked to facilitate inspections.

An advantage of the CT scanners is that they can be built into the luggage conveyor system and require fewer bags to be opened. The security agency’s idea for a long-term solution calls for a system that can be meshed with the conveyor belts.

At Los Angeles International Airport, both kinds of technology will be installed in terminal lobbies for now.

“This is an interim solution,” said Paul Haney, a spokesman for the city agency that operates the airport. “In the long term, we are going to have the in-line solution: equipment that is part of the conveyor systems.”

Because LAX has been targeted for attack by terrorists in the past, the city decided early that it was important to meet Tuesday’s deadline. Haney estimated that it will cost $162 million to renovate the conveyor belt system to accommodate future built-in technology. Most LAX terminals will be ready for the next generation of equipment by the end of 2003, he said.

New Year’s Eve plans for David Stone, federal security director at LAX, call for him being at the airport. Stone will have 1,400 baggage screeners ready. He has been studying computer models of how the bag screening will work, looking for ways to improve efficiency.

The big unknown, he said, is how much time it will take to resolve questions about suspicious items. “Screeners are going to be real careful, particularly in the early going,” Stone said.

To make the screeners’ jobs easier, the agency has asked travelers to leave gifts unwrapped, avoid packing food in checked luggage, spread books out instead of stacking them, put shoes on top of other articles and put personal items in clear bags.

“There are going to be some additional delays. But in the world we live in today,” Stone said, “that seems to be a small price to pay for [more] security.”