Most European countries have adopted the goal of screening 100 percent of checked bags by 2003 and some are already meeting that goal. The U.S. government, on the other hand, has stopped short of requiring 100 percent screening or even setting hard deadlines to meet that standard.
In 1996, the Federal Aviation Administration was given funds to buy high-tech baggage scanners and 142 of them were deployed at 47 U.S. airports. While that’s only about 12 percent of the Americas airports, they serve 97 percent of its flying public. But only a tiny fraction of checked bags are actually screened for explosives.
As reasons for avoiding use of the scanners they have, airlines contend the machines are too cumbersome, too expensive and cause too many delays.
Since Sept. 11, the Federal Aviation Authority has ordered the airlines to use the scanners continuously. But the inspector general says the latest government inspections show airline use “doesn’t meet my definition of continuous.”
Source: Editorial, Checked Baggage Unscreened, Despite Terrorist Threat, USA Today, October 22, 2001.
For text http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20011022/3556201s.htm
For more on Terrorism http://www.ncpa.org/iss/ter/
FMF\30 October 2001
