Price attributes possible shift to newer CT scanners
The Trump administration is considering allowing TSA PreCheck passengers to carry full water bottles through airport security, reversing a ban put in place after a foiled 2006 plot in the United Kingdom in which individuals planned to smuggle liquid chemical mixtures inside soft drink and sports drink bottles. The BBC requested confirmation of the reported change; TSA did not respond.
The water-bottle consideration is among aviation-security shifts that an aviation expert told the BBC represent some of the biggest shifts in aviation security in decades and likely stem from improved technology rather than a decline in standards.
Jeff Price, an aviation security expert and professor at Metro State University Denver, told the BBC that newer security machines TSA is installing to replace traditional X-ray machines have computed-tomography capabilities, which “can do a much better job of detecting liquid-based explosives.”
Separately, TSA announced this week that its Gateside TSA PreCheck programme will be offered at 13 US airports, reversing a restriction put in place after the September 11, 2001 attacks that had confined the secure area beyond checkpoints to ticketed passengers and crew. Americans who hold PreCheck or another known-traveler number will be the first to take advantage of the new gate-access policy, and those who want to visit a gate without a ticket can apply online one to three days before their planned visit, according to TSA.
Price told the BBC that the original post-9/11 gate-access restriction was intended to reduce the number of people security officers had to screen. “It keeps the lines moving and allows us to focus more on the travelling passenger,” he said. But now improvements in technology mean these policies can change, Price added.
“This new program makes it easier to return to the gate for welcomes and send-offs, meet friends during a layover, and enjoy dining and shopping along the way, bringing back the moments that once defined air travel,” TSA wrote on its website.
The proposed shifts follow TSA’s move last year to end the requirement that passengers remove their shoes during security screenings, an unpopular policy in place for two decades. Reaction on social media was mixed, the BBC reported, with older users who remember a time before these policies praising a return to normalcy, while younger users questioned whether the changes signaled any decline in safety.
Price said the changes reflect both technological capacity and a public appetite for the pre-9/11 airport experience. “People have a nostalgia for a pre 9/11, it’s a calling back to a normal world, and I can see that part of it,” he said. “I can see people wanting to get back to something that they feel more comfortable with, which was a pre 9/11 world.”
But Price said these changes will not impact the safety of passengers as long as core security measures remain in place and standards continue to be high. He cautioned against loosening security measures for nostalgia alone. “I don’t want to compromise [valid security measures] simply for a nostalgic feeling before 9/11,” he said. “I don’t think we should make those types of decisions so that we feel better. We can make those types of decisions as long as the security measures are not compromised, and that’s always what I look for in these situations.”