A well known leading association of airline pilots has just called for a rethinking of passenger screening. They claim that passenger trustworthiness should not be prioritized ahead of intensive physical screening measures. This call comes just a few days before the new restrictions came out in Britain that force passengers to submit to going through a controversial body scanner before they are allowed to fly.

Since February 1^st, any passenger that flies out of London Heathrow Airport, which is the world’s busiest airport, has to pass through a full body scanner if asked. If the person declines to do so, then they are not permitted to fly. Similar restrictions are soon to be implemented at Amstedam’s Schiphol airport and are currently underway in the United States as well.

Despite these new rules, the American and Canadian Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) has branded changes to the security system an inadequate response. The group thinks that today’s screening systems are really just the same old scanning systems with a bit of patchwork done to them.

The ALPA National Security Committee Chairman, Capt. Robb Powers, said that their layered aviation security system is in dire need of a major reform. He said that their proposal focuses on identifying people who pose no threat to aviation and quickly removing them through a screening process that is commensurate with the level of trust they have earned. This approach to aviation security is more sophisticated, more efficient and significantly more effective than the current system.

ALPA believes that a new screening system that works much like credit checks used by banks should be introduced. Each passenger’s identity would be verified and then scored allowing them to be marked as not a threat, unknown threat, or known threat. Security officers would then adapt their actions according to each passenger’s threat level from a quick x-ray or metal detector scan of the person that’s a threat.

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Filed under Travel News, World News

• Talks of Cutting Down on Airport Security Heat Up

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 10:01 am and is filed under Travel News, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.