Bag Cam

Has it been seven years already? Did replacing local airport security personnel with a gigantic government bureaucracy make us safer?

Jaunted has a nice writeup here.

Show #6 is now available through the feeds or from iTunes.
“New footage of CAREFUL baggage handlers. Plus inconsistent requirements, penetration testing of “Security Theatre”, behavior profiling, and creative uses of a Beer Belly.”

Direct links: AAC (8.5mb) | MP3 (9.6mb)

“Bagcam 2.0, airport efficiency in Switzerland, San Diego and Alaska, Homeland Security Today, Flightaware.com, Skyvector.com”.

Direct links: AAC (17.2mb) | MP3 (23.2mb)

In case you thought security snafus were a U.S.-only phenom, here’s a story out of the U.K., also being reported by the New Zealand. Beyond the final conviction for conspiracy to murder which started us all measuring liquids and buying stock in Ziploc(tm), there is now concern about international passengers swapping tickets with a domestic flying accomplice. Should passengers in mixed-use terminals be photographed and/or fingerprinted?

Playing the dutiful traveler this weekend. I left BDL via STL for SFO yesterday. No problems getting through security, other than the single scanner in use being backed up by the morning flight to San Juan. Too bad the TSA supervisor didn’t check the departure schedule earlier. With all my liquids and gels in a ziplock bag, nobody seemed to care that I just left it in my backpack.

I’m a Delta (DAL) guy from way back, so flying American is a bit of an adventure. They are very businesslike overall. Sort of like a bus driver, or Shirley Q. Liquor: sit down, shut up, and here we go.

Heading back now from SFO to BDL via DFW. Security was less than 3 minutes. I’m not checking bags this trip, so I have more than my normal stuff to juggle. But I was still able to outpace about two dozen people. Look ahead, think ahead, anticipate!

Latest on the shoe screening machinery, take 2. Article at redOrbit.

October’s first attempt (take 1), from Jaunted.com. Some other great stuff over there about airport security.

JetBlue designed their new terminal to address security requirements:

The new terminal features a 20-lane security checkpoint, the largest such screening area in North America, said Tom Kennedy, project director, in an interview with the Associated Press. The security checkpoint also features a fully-automated bag screening and wider spaces to help passengers access luggage and get through security easier and faster.

Article at Cheapflights.com.

The TSA has been working with bag manufacturers to enable an unobstructed view of the laptop without having to remove it from your bag.  It’s interesting to think back to the genesis of needing to take laptops out of bags. The original purpose for removing the laptop was to prove that it would actually boot up as a computer. The screeners then got sophisticated enough (supposedly) to see regular laptop guts vs explosive device guts. Unfortunately the other bag contents got in the way, hence the requirement to set your electronics on an ungrounded rolling rubber conveyor belt and subject them to 1.21 gigawatts of static electricity. Now you are allowed to unfold your bag to expose the laptop, then zip it closed out the other side.

Read the Powerpage article which links to the TIME article. Also, Jaunted has a good writeup, including a note on why they think the plan is stupid.

Carry or Check? That is the question. Yes indeed, you need to check your items for compliance, or face the chance of leaving them behind at security. No “mail them home to yourself” or “retrieve your luggage from the bowels of the automated handling machinery”. Gone. Confiscated. Surrendered to an unknown fate.

We love Seat Guru, and as always they’ve come through with a comprehensive list.