By LYNN HORSLEY
The Kansas City Star
JOHN SLEEZER
9-month-old Joseph Arnett was comfortable as he waited in line to check bags with his father Tom Arnett and his mother Mary Arnett, left, all from Blue Springs, MO, as they prepared to fly to New Mexico for the holidays on Tuesday November 23, 2010, at Kansas City International Airport in Kansas City, MO. This was Joseph's 3rd flight on an airplane since he was born. John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star
It’s one of the busiest travel days of the year. A controversy over body searches at airports has been building. And some people are calling for a security protest.
Any reason to worry?
Probably not, say federal officials — but arrive early all the same.
“We will process people as quickly, as efficiently and as securely as possible,” Transportation Security Administration Chief John Pistole said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters.
He said he remained concerned, however, about the potential for a large numbers of protesters to intentionally slow screenings today.
An Internet campaign has been calling on passengers to boycott the full-body scanning machines in what is being called National Opt-Out Day. The idea is that the extra time needed to pat down people who refuse the scanners could cause a succession of delays throughout airports.
TSA officials said 99 percent of passengers nationally chose to go through the advanced imaging technology (AIT) machines. If screeners see something suspicious, passengers are then subjected to enhanced pat-downs, which some people say are overly intrusive.
Very few passengers require pat-downs searches, which now include the crotch and chest, officials said.
Kansas City International Airport spokesman Joe McBride said KCI had received 15 to 20 questions and concerns about screening procedures on its website since Friday, with some people saying, “I don’t want to do this.” But he said there had been no evidence of intentional delays so far this week.
“It looks routine,” he said Tuesday of the lines, estimating most were no more than five minutes long.
Because today is a traditionally busy day anyway, TSA officials advise all passengers to get to airports at least two hours ahead of their flights.
Indeed, Thanksgiving travel by both car and plane is expected to be up this year.
A protest is planned at KCI today, but it’s being done with a permit and outdoors, not within the terminals.
A group associated with the Liberty Restoration Project of Kansas City says it will gather outside Terminal B from 10 a.m. to noon as part of the national protest against the new scanners and enhanced pat-downs.
McBride noted that at KCI, the two AIT machines are only used in Terminal B by the airport’s two busiest carriers, Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines. In each instance, passengers have a 50/50 chance of getting full-body scans. Otherwise they go through regular metal detectors.
People are subject to pat-downs if they set off the machines, if screeners detect something suspicious, or if the people decline the machine screenings.
McBride doubted that many people, especially those with nonrefundable tickets, would deliberately risk missing flights or deliberately delay other passengers by slowing down the screening process.
However, he acknowledged that if delays occurred at other airports, such as in Chicago or Denver, it could have a “domino effect” on flights into Kansas City.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that about two-thirds of Americans support the full-body scanners to increase security but that about half the 514 adults said the more rigorous pat-downs go too far.
Earlier this week, Pistole essentially pleaded with Thanksgiving travelers not to boycott the scanners, which could snarl what is already the fourth-busiest traveling day of the year. The Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day.
“It is irresponsible for a group to suggest travelers opt out of the very screening that may prevent an attack using nonmetallic explosives,” he said in a statement. “This technology is not only safe, it’s vital to aviation security and a critical measure to thwart potential terrorist attacks.”
Pistole said his agency welcomed “feedback and comments on the screening procedures from the traveling public, and we will work to make them as minimally invasive as possible while still providing the security that the American people want and deserve.”
Pistole said in Tuesday’s conference call that the agency had received about 2,000 complaints about either the body scanners or the enhanced pat-downs.
Mike Right, an AAA spokesman from St. Louis, said Tuesday he traveled throughout six airports last week and noticed security screenings were taking longer.
“It was intrusive, to say the least,” he said of the pat-downs. “They shimmy up your legs.”
Passenger advocate Kate Hanni, director of FlyersRights.org, said it was time for passengers nationally to “send a message that the TSA has gone to far” in violating the privacy rights of travelers.
Hanni said her organization recently received 1,000 complaints a day over the scanning devices and pat-downs, and some people were canceling their travel. She was advising others to opt out of the scanners and request a private room for a pat-down, with a witness.
The Business Travel Coalition, which represents corporate travel managers, is criticizing both the TSA and groups that were calling for a boycott.
In a news release, the group said protesters had effectively raised awareness about “intrusive and sometimes wasteful TSA security processes.” But it also said that for the safety and security of the public, these groups should cancel their boycott and redirect their efforts toward a “complete review of the TSA.”
David Castelveter, vice president of communications for the Air Transport Association, which represents leading U.S. airlines, said its members were hearing from customers both for and against the new procedures.
He said some people considered the new pat-downs excessive, but most of them hadn’t undergone one. The majority of people, he said, think that if the procedures ensure that every passenger on a plane has had a thorough screening, “we’re OK with that.”
Despite all the hassles of traveling, Right said AAA was projecting a 3.5 percent increase in air travel nationally over the Thanksgiving holiday, and a 12 percent increase in people traveling by car 50 or more miles from home, over last year.
KCI projects about 350,000 more passengers, a 4 percent increase, during the 12-day period that began last Friday and concludes Nov. 30.
Right attributed the increase to a moderately improved economy and the fact that people felt a little more secure in their personal financial situations this year versus last.
“It’s hard to miss Grandma’s house two years in a row,” he said.
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/11/23/2466903/protests-over-airline-security.html#ixzz16FWNPUii
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