TSA will announce screening changes at 11 am EDT Mon., Sept 25th.

[NotUrsula]

There is a press notice up on the TSA website inviting the press to a news conference to be held at DCA at 11 am EDT, at which TSA says it will announce "refinements" to the passenger screening process.

 

[bicker]

This is probably going hand-in-hand with the changes recently implemented in the UK. The threat level for airline travel has probably gone down, so the concern about someone brining explosives on board is probably less.

 

[bg4]

News conference at 11A ET 09/25 but was released on the morning news shows.

exerpts from associated press

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A Homeland Security Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made, said that most liquids and gels that air travelers purchase in secure areas of airports will now be allowed on planes.

That means that after passengers go through airport security checkpoints, they can purchase liquids at airport stores and take them onto their planes

New procedures also were being announced for products like lip gloss and hand lotion that passengers bring to the airport. Previously, those liquids have been confiscated at security checkpoints. Now, the official said, those products will be put in clear plastic bags at the checkpoint, screened and returned to the passenger if they pass screening.
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If I heard right the lotions/liquids in the plastic zip-lock bags are as many 4 oz bottles as can fit in a gallon sized zip lock bag.

 

[salmoneous]

Sigh. As I expect - only a half-way gesture. Well, it's better than nothing. And it further exposes the silliness of the rules. Maybe some reporters/politicians will be inspired to ask some tough questions.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060925/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/air_travel_security

 

[TravelinGal]

Can't wait to hear the full official announcement.

I hope that "products like lip gloss and hand lotion" will include shampoo and conditioner! Although I imagine that would really slow down security lines horribly if they have to test the product in each container.

 

[tacomaranch]

So, is it still limited to 4 oz of liquid or can I bring my Gin?

 

[bicker]

Sigh. As I expect - only a half-way gesture. Well, it's better than nothing. And it further exposes the silliness of the rules. Maybe some reporters/politicians will be inspired to ask some tough questions.

I disagree. It exposes just how serious and deliberate the rules are. I suspect the only reporters/politicians making a stink about this are those looking for cheap airtime.

 

[marivaid]

Anything they will allow will be better than what we have now. Whatever they give.. I'll take it !

 

[dsneygirl]

I heard about this on GMA this morning. I am in Canada by flying from Buffalo this weekend to WDW. We don't use gallon measurements so is it the size of a sandwich bag or a larger freezer bag?

 

[1000th happy haunt]

A US gallon is about four liters, so it would be a larger bag.

 

[ransom]

Does this mean the terrorists have won, or lost?

 

[iluvflorida8]

Does this mean the terrorists have won, or lost?

They have won.......read excellent article below.

I'm choosing to copy, in its entirety, an excellent article by security guru Bruce Schneier, headed 'What the Terrorists Want'.

On August 16, two men were escorted off a plane headed for Manchester, England, because some passengers thought they looked either Asian or Middle Eastern, might have been talking Arabic, wore leather jackets, and looked at their watches -- and the passengers refused to fly with them on board. The men were questioned for several hours and then released.

On August 15, an entire airport terminal was evacuated because someone's cosmetics triggered a false positive for explosives. The same day, a Muslim man was removed from an airplane in Denver for reciting prayers. The Transportation Security Administration decided that the flight crew overreacted, but he still had to spend the night in Denver before flying home the next day. The next day, a Port of Seattle terminal was evacuated because a couple of dogs gave a false alarm for explosives.

On August 19, a plane made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, after the crew became suspicious because two of the lavatory doors were locked. The plane was searched, but nothing was found. Meanwhile, a man who tampered with a bathroom smoke detector on a flight to San Antonio was cleared of terrorism, but only after having his house searched.

On August 16, a woman suffered a panic attack and became violent on a flight from London to Washington, so the plane was escorted to the Boston airport by fighter jets. "The woman was carrying hand cream and matches but was not a terrorist threat," said the TSA spokesman after the incident.

And on August 18, a plane flying from London to Egypt made an emergency landing in Italy when someone found a bomb threat scrawled on an air sickness bag. Nothing was found on the plane, and no one knows how long the note was on board.

I'd like everyone to take a deep breath and listen for a minute.

The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets, or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.

And we're doing exactly what the terrorists want.

We're all a little jumpy after the recent arrest of 23 terror suspects in Great Britain. The men were reportedly plotting a liquid-explosive attack on airplanes, and both the press and politicians have been trumpeting the story ever since.

In truth, it's doubtful that their plan would have succeeded; chemists have been debunking the idea since it became public. Certainly the suspects were a long way off from trying: None had bought airline tickets, and some didn't even have passports.

Regardless of the threat, from the would-be bombers' perspective, the explosives and planes were merely tactics. Their goal was to cause terror, and in that they've succeeded.

Imagine for a moment what would have happened if they had blown up ten planes. There would be canceled flights, chaos at airports, bans on carry-on luggage, world leaders talking tough new security measures, political posturing and all sorts of false alarms as jittery people panicked. To a lesser degree, that's basically what's happening right now.

Our politicians help the terrorists every time they use fear as a campaign tactic. The press helps every time it writes scare stories about the plot and the threat. And if we're terrified, and we share that fear, we help. All of these actions intensify and repeat the terrorists' actions, and increase the effects of their terror.

(I am not saying that the politicians and press are terrorists, or that they share any of the blame for terrorist attacks. I'm not that stupid. But the subject of terrorism is more complex than it appears, and understanding its various causes and effects are vital for understanding how to best deal with it.)

The implausible plots and false alarms actually hurt us in two ways. Not only do they increase the level of fear, but they also waste time and resources that could be better spent fighting the real threats and increasing actual security. I'll bet the terrorists are laughing at us.

Another thought experiment: Imagine for a moment that the British government arrested the 23 suspects without fanfare. Imagine that the TSA and its European counterparts didn't engage in pointless airline security measures like banning liquids. And imagine that the press didn't write about it endlessly, and that the politicians didn't use the event to remind us all how scared we should be. If we'd reacted that way, then the terrorists would have truly failed.

It's time we calm down and fight terror with anti-terror. This does not mean that we simply roll over and accept terrorism. There are things our government can and should do to fight terrorism, most of them involving intelligence and investigation -- and not focusing on specific plots.

But our job is to remain steadfast in the face of terror, to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to not panic every time two Muslims stand together checking their watches. There are approximately 1 billion Muslims in the world, a large percentage of them not Arab, and about 320 million Arabs in the Middle East, the overwhelming majority of them not terrorists. Our job is to think critically and rationally, and to ignore the cacophony of other interests trying to use terrorism to advance political careers or increase a television show's viewership.

The surest defense against terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to recognize that terrorism is just one of the risks we face, and not a particularly common one at that. And our job is to fight those politicians who use fear as an excuse to take away our liberties and promote security theater that wastes money and doesn't make us any safer.

With Bruce's thoughts in mind, it is helpful to look at this table. In the eleven years from 1995 through 2005, 3,147 people died from terrorism related acts in the US. But check the numbers of people who died after being shot by law enforcement officers (3,949) or who accidentally drowned (38,302) or who died from a work related incident (59,730). And so on for various other categories of death by misadventure.

In fact, your appendix is more likely to kill you than al-Qaida is.

With that in mind, here's a handy ranking of the various dangers confronting America, based on the number of mortalities in each category throughout the 11-year period spanning 1995 through 2005 (extrapolated from best available data).

S E V E R E
Driving off the road: 254,419
Falling: 146,542
Accidental poisoning: 140,327


H I G H
Dying from work: 59,730
Walking down the street: 52,000.
Accidentally drowning: 38,302


E L E V A T E D
Killed by the flu: 19,415
Dying from a hernia: 16,742


G U A R D E D
Accidental firing of a gun: 8,536
Electrocution: 5,171


L O W
Being shot by law enforcement: 3,949
Terrorism: 3147
Carbon monoxide in products: 1,554

 

[iluvflorida8]

That means that after passengers go through airport security checkpoints, they can purchase liquids at airport stores and take them onto their planes

This the most ridiculous thing I have heard. What does this accomplish?? So you can pay the "rip off" prices at the airport stores for contact solution,toothpaste,etc. Then you throw it away when you get ready for your return trip, because it is used and opened???????

The TSA is a joke!!!

 

[kaytieeldr]

This the most ridiculous thing I have heard. What does this accomplish?? So you can pay the "rip off" prices at the airport stores for contact solution,toothpaste,etc. Then you throw it away when you get ready for your return trip, because it is used and opened???????

No. You can BRING up to four ounces of contact lens solution to the airport and on board the plane with you.
You can PACK toothpaste in your checked luggage, or buy it at the airport or your hotel, or see if your hotel has complimentary toothpaste, or ship it to yourself at your destination in advance, or order it online, or order it from a grocery delivery service, or use tooth powder (or baking powder), or purchase travel toothbrushes with tooth powder in them, or...
I wasn't aware the ban EVER differentiated between open and unopened items.
Then you can PACK all banned-from-the-passenger-cabin in your checked luggage for your trip home.

Oh - or you can find a different mode of transportation. There ARE alternatives for people who object to the restrictions.

 

[NotUrsula]

Sorry folks, it is a QUART-SIZE ZIPLOC, *not* a gallon, and the max. limit on size for each container inside of it is 3 oz.

http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/9-25_updated_passenger_guidance.shtm

For those of you outside the US, a avg. quart-size bag measures 18cm X 22.5cm. (approx. 8 X 7.5 inches of useable space) I predict that gusset-bottomed TSA-approved clear cosmetics pouches will soon be widely available in stores that carry travel products.

Note that liquid meds don't have to go in this same ziploc; this is toiletries, over and above any liquid meds that you are allowed to carry.

 

[iluvflorida8]

Oh - or you can find a different mode of transportation. There ARE alternatives for people who object to the restrictions.

What other modes of transportation are there for business people, that have a 1 day business trip that is 1500-2000 miles away, and only need a small carry on and prefer not to check it?

 

[bicker]

This the most ridiculous thing I have heard. What does this accomplish??

Chain of custody. Not ridiculous at all. It is far easier to check the chain of custody for bulk shipments of water, etc., coming onto the concouse through the handful of restaurant and eatery receiving offices, as compared to having to check tens of thousands of individual people carrying in their own water, etc.,

 

[CarolA]

This the most ridiculous thing I have heard. What does this accomplish?? So you can pay the "rip off" prices at the airport stores for contact solution,toothpaste,etc. Then you throw it away when you get ready for your return trip, because it is used and opened???????

The TSA is a joke!!!

Hey at least they now seem to believe that stuff is safe! Until this morning it was "DANGEROUS" (which brings up a WHOLE new set of questions... WHY WAS IT DANGEROUS? Had the TSA FAILED to screen it???)

 

[salmoneous]

Chain of custody. Not ridiculous at all. It is far easier to check the chain of custody for bulk shipments of water, etc., coming onto the concouse through the handful of restaurant and eatery receiving offices, as compared to having to check tens of thousands of individual people carrying in their own water, etc.,

I might buy this IF the TSA hadn't been telling people for the last month passengers couldn't bring on stuff bought in the terminal since it wasn't secure.