in Rant, TSA

Half-Baked Screening Rules Cause Delay

Just as I suspected, the lines at the airport screening point were five times as long as they normally are this time of day. In spite of two TSA screeners set up at a table to assist people with removing their liquids (nice effort, actually), the line was still far too long.

I looked around at the people in line and didn’t see one overnight bag anywhere. Why the delay? It seems that the X-ray person was carefully screening each bag for liquids, even though the TSA said on Monday that liquids posed a “very unlikely” threat. As he looked at the lady’s bag behind me, the X-ray operator commented to the screener behind him, “is that a drink?” So clearly liquids are still being screened, in spite of their unlikely threat. At least they aren’t rocketing bags through the machine like they were a few weeks ago.

Another thing I noticed is that the airport is still covered with signs saying liquids are prohibited, even though as of Monday that’s no longer true. People may still be dumping their expensive colognes and perfumes (in some cases not a bad thing) needlessly. I took it as another example of how the new screening rules are half-baked.

  1. I heard that they had some cut off as to how many ounces of fluid were allowed. Above a certain amount, it’s not allowed. I think it was pretty small. Cologne would pass, but a coca-cola would not

  2. The limits are 4oz of anything. Anything purchased in the “clean” area of the airport (airport shops, that is) is okay, no matter what amount. How the screeners know that bottled water you have was purchsed at an airport shop is beyond me.

    And just as Wade mentioned earlier, they are still mixing all of the rejected liquids in a big trash can. Supposedly, its the mixing of certain chemicals which would cause an explosion. So you get a Big Boom in front of a long line of waiting passengers, rather than onboard the aircraft. It sounds like a push to me.

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