Friday, Sept. 17, 2004 | 10:59 a.m.
SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Travelers at McCarran International Airport greeted news of plans for tighter security screenings at airports beginning next week with shrugs of compliance this morning.
The new rules will require all passengers to take off jackets before passing through metal detectors, and more travelers will be subjected to pat-down searches and checks for explosives, the Transportation Security Administration announced Thursday.
"I'll take it off anytime," Mary Louise DiEnno, a Las Vegas resident traveling to Chicago, said this morning of the light jacket she was wearing. "I'll do anything they want me to do to make it safe -- pat us down, whatever.
"Anybody who puts up an argument has to have a couple of screws loose."
The stricter rules came after two Chechen women last month apparently carried bombs onto two Russian planes and blew them up midair.
Bags checked onto planes in the United States already must pass through machines that can detect various kinds of explosives. But neither the walk-through metal detectors that passengers use on the way to gates nor the X-ray machines for carry-on bags can detect plastic explosives.
Jim Blair, Transportation Security Administration director at McCarran, said that screeners have always required that bulky winter coats be removed at security checkpoints, but now those procedures will be expanded to cover suit jackets, sports coats, warm-up jackets and blazers.
"We're going to ask that they take them off so that we can get a little better look at their torso as they pass through screening," Blair said.
Rafi Ron, former head of security at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport and now a security consultant in Washington, said the new steps were "something we've been expecting for too long, but finally it's coming."
Screeners will advise passengers of the new procedures when they put their carry-on bags on the conveyor belt, agency spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said.
Every passenger selected for secondary screening after passing through metal detectors will have their carry-on items subjected to checks by explosives trace detectors.
Screeners also have more discretion to conduct pat-down searches and check carry-on bags for bombs.
Most passengers waiting in line at McCarran's crowded D gate security checkpoint, where lines were moving swiftly this morning, said they had no problem with the additional security.
"I don't think it could be any more difficult than taking your shoes off every time," a man who asked to be identified only as "David," said.
Faith Wright, who was traveling back to Yorkshire, England, said, "It's better to be safe."
Others said the heightened security was just a fact of life.
"I've been through so much now already, they have to do what they have to do," Ken Hammond, of Ontario, Canada, said.
There were some waiting in line at McCarran, however, who didn't like the idea of being patted down every time they go through airport security.
"I just don't really feel the need to be rubbed all over by somebody," Jason Sheedy of Australia said. "From what I've seen, security looks tight enough."
In the past added security measures have usually equated to longer waits in line until travelers become more of aware of the changes, but the TSA's Blair said he hopes that won't happen this time.
"We're trying to let everybody know that this is coming, and make sure they are familiar with it," Blair said. "We're going to do everything we can to ensure it doesn't add to the wait time."
Blair said that TSA officials at McCarran will try to instruct passengers about the need to remove coats and jackets before they get to the X-ray machines.
Elaine Sanchez, a spokeswoman for McCarran, said that the airport plans to work with the TSA in implementing the new procedures.
"We're lucky in that we don't have the weather that they have in the Eastern United States, so we see fewer coats and jackets," Sanchez said. "Hopefully by the time it cools off here we'll have worked through the new procedures."
The commission that investigated 9/11 recommended in its final report that the government make it a priority to improve the ability to detect explosives on passengers at security checkpoints.
"As a start, each individual selected for special screening should be screened for explosives," the report said.
The agency also is testing walk-through bomb-detection machines at five airports. This technology subjects passengers to puffs of air, which are collected and analyzed to determine if explosives residues are present. The pilot programs will help determine whether the trace detection technology is appropriate for use within an airport environment.
Document scanners that can pick up explosives residue on boarding passes and IDs are being tested at Washington Reagan National Airport.
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