Aviation securityAirline crews to get separate TSA screening process
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently announced that it will begin a pilot program that tests a new separate screening process for airline pilots and flight attendants; to expedite airport security lines, airline pilots and flight attendants would not have to go through the same lines as passengers; the specifics of the system are currently in development, but TSA officials say that they are exploring the use of biometric retina scans or fingerprint matches to verify an individual’s identity against airline employee databases; many pilots objected to TSA’s increased search procedures believing that they were a nuisance and entirely unnecessary as they already have full control over the plane
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently announced that it will begin a pilot program that tests a new separate screening process for airline pilots and flight attendants.
To expedite airport security lines, airline pilots and flight attendants would not have to go through the same lines as passengers.
Corey Caldwell, a spokesman for the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), said, “When this program is fully implemented for flight attendants and pilots it will help make passenger screening more efficient and streamlined because the alternate screening will provide a separate checkpoint for crew members.”
The specifics of the system are currently in development, but TSA officials say that they are exploring the use of biometric retina scans or fingerprint matches to verify an individual’s identity against airline employee databases.
TSA will begin testing the new security checkpoints in some airports this year for pilots. When the program has been implemented across the country, flight attendants will be added.
Airline crews and TSA have been attempting to establish a separate more efficient screening process for several years, but recently pilots began pushing harder after TSA unveiled its enhanced security screening process.
Many pilots objected to the increased search procedures believing that they were a nuisance and entirely unnecessary as they already have full control over the plane.
In a statement issued last November at the height of the TSA body scanner controversy, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said that subjecting pilots to screening “does not enhance security because pilots have the safety of their passengers and aircraft in their hands on every flight.”
Instead, the additional security measures were the “latest changes in a long line of ever-increasing security measures that have frustrated and burdened airline pilots.”
Captain John Prater, the president of ALPA, said that pilots are “very heavily scrutinized and evaluated” and have already been subject to “extensive FBI background checks.”
Prater also noted that “thousands are deputized as Federal Flight Deck Officers by the TSA who carry and are authorized to use lethal force while on duty to defend the cockpit from a terrorist threat.”
