Stepped-Up Baggage Screening Causes Few Problems

Predicted logjams failed to materialize at airports in Southern California and across the nation Friday as air traffic moved smoothly despite the imposition of new baggage screening procedures.

Lines at many airports were long, but in spite of the start of a three-day holiday weekend, delays usually were no greater than they have been since the September terrorist attacks. Most passengers had anticipated delays and few missed their scheduled flights.

Some travelers complained about the inconveniences imposed by heightened security, but most accepted the changes with grace.

“I’m not surprised and not a bit upset,” said Gaylord Foreman, one of the passengers who was selected at random for extra screening at John Wayne Airport in Orange County. “I like knowing that I will get there in one piece.”

That attitude would have pleased U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta.

“I think in today’s world, patience is a new form of patriotism,” Mineta said Friday morning on CBS’s “The Early Show.”

Under interim requirements that went fully into effect Friday, airlines are using a combination of measures to screen checked baggage, all prescribed by Congress after the terrorist attacks.

The basic screening technique, called bag matching, is intended to ensure that no luggage gets into a cargo hold unless the passenger who checked it is on the plane.

If a passenger does not take a seat, his flight must be held until his bags are pulled from the plane. By late Friday afternoon, there were no reports of substantial delays caused by the procedure.

But experts agree that “bag matching” is far from fail-safe. In many cases, the bags of passengers who transfer to other flights will not be rematched for each leg of the journey. Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.) calls that gap an “Achilles’ heel” of the security system.

Bag matching also does not protect against suicide bombers willing to step onto a plane after checking a bomb into the cargo hold.

In compliance with the Friday deadline, more bags were being searched by hand, by machines that can detect explosives and by specially trained dogs, according to the airlines. But the carriers have kept their procedures confidential and completed the checks in secure areas, outside public view.

The measures are said to be considerably more stringent than the previous system, under which only a tiny proportion of bags checked on domestic flights were screened for explosives.

Mineta said the interim plan will remain in effect until Dec. 31, by which time 429 U.S. airports must have sophisticated explosive-detection equipment running to mechanically screen every piece of luggage.

But many observers worry that deadline won’t be met. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer complained Friday that “bureaucratic foot-dragging” is delaying installation of the machines.

“Congress has already appropriated $3 billion for the purchase of these scanners,” the California Democrat said during a news conference at Los Angeles International Airport. “But the Department of Transportation has not entered into a contract with either of the two companies in the United States that manufacture the machines . . .

“They have the money,” she said. “We need those machines.”

At LAX, several flights were delayed early Friday. But the new security procedures weren’t the problem; nasty winter weather in Chicago was to blame.

Concerned that the new screening laws would lead to longer lines, Melba Harris arrived at LAX four hours early to fly home to Houston after attending a seminar in Los Angeles. The 53-year-old independent school administrator breezed through the line outside Terminal No. 1 in less than 10 minutes.

“This is easy,” she said.

Some Are Irritated at Security Screening

At Burbank Airport, flights arrived and departed on schedule. Much of the irritation that passengers felt was over screening at security checkpoints that has been in place for weeks.

Before boarding an 8:25 a.m. Southwest Airlines flight to San Jose, Joan Francione had to endure two hand-wand searches by security personnel. The agents rummaged through her bags and asked her to take off her boots and jacket and spread her arms.

“I understand what they’re trying to do, but as far as stripping me in front of all these strangers, I don’t like that,” said Francione, 64, of Arcadia.

Shirley Carroll, a bartender at the tavern next to the area where travelers are checked by security screeners, said she has seen other passengers placed in even more awkward positions.

“Young girls who are into body piercing have a particularly hard time,” said Carroll, 47.

As a contract security inspector sorting through carry-ons at Southwest’s Burbank gates, Akop Semerdzhvan received the brunt of travelers’ frustrations Friday.

To the sound of sighs, curses and grumpy mumblings, he unzipped bags full of baby bottles, college sweatshirts, undergarments and toiletries.

Extra scrutiny often is assigned randomly by computers, not by security personnel, Semerdzhvan said. Many travelers become offended anyway, he said, complaining that the screeners think they look like terrorists.

However, most travelers Friday were philosophical. At John Wayne Airport, Eric Leyrer was checking in for a flight to Ohio when he was asked to take his bag to an inspection table.

“Sometimes you have to give up some civil liberties for safety,” Leyrer said.

At Ontario International Airport, most departures were on time, with a handful of arrivals 10 to 15 minutes behind schedule.

One Southwest Airlines flight that originated in Hartford, Conn., pulled in 85 minutes late after the plane was diverted to Oklahoma City to let off an ill passenger and remove his luggage.

Some Southwest lines were long, including the one at Sacramento’s Metro Airport, but in general, the airline’s operations were going well, Southwest spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said.

Airline Reports Little Trouble

Some travelers had feared the carrier might be particularly hobbled because of its frequent short-haul flights and fast turnaround times at airports.

“We’ve been surveying our stations [airports] almost hourly,” and the “implementation of these new procedures has been very smooth,” Rutherford said. Other airlines said their operations generally were trouble-free too.

At Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Maryland, the lines Friday were a bit longer than usual, but not much.

Passengers traveling on American, Delta and US Airways around midday faced the longest waits--up to 60 minutes in queues that twisted into long switchbacks and extended around a corner into a waiting area.

At Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, things were no busier than normal.

“Everybody at work said ‘you’d better go now, you’d better go now,’ ” said frequent flier Lonna Mathison, 39, of Minneapolis. “But the lines were nothing unusual for this time of day.”

Times staff writers Jennifer Oldham in Los Angeles, H.G. Reza in Orange County, Tom Gorman in Salt Lake City, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Sean Gill in Washington, correspondent Buck Wargo in Ontario, and researcher Edith Stanley in Atlanta contributed to this story.