Airlines to receive guidance on bag screening

By Kathleen Koch
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Government sources tell CNN that airlines will receive final guidance Friday from the federal government on what measures it will consider acceptable in meeting new bag screening requirements.

The rules, effective January 18, mandate that all checked bags be screened.

Right now, only about 10 percent of checked luggage is examined for explosives, and airlines have been meeting frequently with federal officials to determine how to best screen the rest.

Airlines can use huge, million-dollar explosive detection machines, but only 161 are in place at major airports. The industry would need 2,200 to screen the 1.3 billion bags it handles every year.

So, Congress in the Aviation Security Act gave airlines other options -- including using bomb-sniffing dogs, of which there are 175 in place at 39 airports.

But former FAA security chief Cathal Flynn says there could be problems because the canine teams are trained to search planes, rooms or unattended bags for bombs.

"We haven't used dogs for repetitive tasks, of screening or sniffing hundreds, indeed thousands of bags," says Flynn. "There is a problem of inattention because bombs are so rare."

Airlines can also conduct hand-searches. But most tell CNN that they'll avoid that since it's slow and raises issues of theft or breakage of passenger belongings.

Airlines largely plan to use bag-matching, ensuring that no bag goes onto a plane if the passenger who checked it isn't on board as well. But airlines are unsure whether the government will require them to remove bags from the cargo hold every time a passenger misses a connection or is bumped from an over-booked flight. If so, the industry warns massive delays could result.

A final clause in the Aviation Security Act permits airlines to screen checked bags with "other (approved) means or technology." The federal government hasn't yet clarified what that includes.

Some airlines are already testing new screening methods.

As a result, 93 American Airlines flights at St. Louis's Lambert Airport were delayed two different days this month after the FAA questioned the airline's inspections of some checked bags.