Letters to the Editor: Packed flights, unmasked TSA agents: How is this still allowed?

To the editor: Your article about flight attendants demanding a halt to all leisure air travel stated that flights are now mostly empty.

My daughter flew home recently on a packed Frontier Airlines flight. There was no pre-flight health screening, and many passengers were not wearing masks. At her departure airport, U.S. Transportation Security Administration workers were not wearing masks either.

How do we allow a packed plane from the East Coast to disembark in L.A. with passengers not wearing masks? How are airlines exempt from social distancing rules? And what about TSA agents?

How can we return to normal if we are not achieving a basic minimum of safety in air travel?

Isabella Sledge, MD, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Your article on airline workers cited unions, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation and Health and Human Services departments. There was no mention of Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA.

Traveling 2,000 miles through three airports last Friday, I found no food or drinks served on flights or in airports; attendants and travelers wore masks at boarding stations and in flight; masked crews washed terminal hallways; and all people were distancing.

However, prior to attaining this relative protection, there was the TSA inspection to move through. Here, more TSA agents congregated than passengers, but none wore a mask. I asked why; they said they were not required to do so.

The TSA has more than 50,000 employees. Where is the security in not wearing masks?

Liza White, Tuscaloosa, Ala.