Long screening wait at McCarran called a necessity

Jace Radke

Friday, July 18, 2003 | 9:29 a.m.

During peak times, travelers making their way through McCarran International Airport may have to wait more than an hour to go through security screening, but the screening remains a necessity, said Jim Blair, the airport's federal security director.

"Sometimes we get a lot of criticism when people see us screening children or the elderly, and they question why we're doing it," Blair said Thursday.

The answer, Blair said, is illustrated by an incident at Orlando International Airport a week ago.

On July 11, a 10-year-old boy went through screening with a teddy bear that was found to contain a loaded handgun sewn inside, Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nico Melendez said.

The boy was reportedly given the bear by a stranger while he and his family were visiting Florida from Grove City, Ohio. The FBI is investigating the case.

"This is why we do the checks and we are maintaining the randomness that we have always employed," Blair said. "We never know what we're going to get."

Blair said he has heard another story of a man who tried to pass through security with an 8-inch knife hidden inside his prosthetic leg.

"We don't want to stop searching certain groups of people because we'd only be advertising a way for terrorists to take advantage," Blair said.

The TSA wants to remind all passengers traveling during the busy summer months not to accept packages or items from strangers, Melendez said.

The TSA's goal is to get passengers through screening within 10 minutes, but the unique nature of McCarran causes some longer lines. About 92 percent of the airport's 36 million annual passengers are coming to or leaving Las Vegas, not simply catching a connecting flight. This means that a higher percentage of passengers at McCarran go through security checkpoints, making for longer lines, especially on Sundays and Mondays when thousands of tourists are leaving town.

McCarran is in the process of adding as many as six more checkpoints to the 25 already in place to cut wait times.