Mineta outlines bag screening guidelines

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta on Wednesday outlined new airline guidelines for screening checked bags, calling for a multi-layered system of security.

Airlines face a Friday deadline set by Congress for putting procedures in place to screen all checked bags for explosives. In a speech to the Transportation Research Board, an industry group, Mineta said the airlines would meet that deadline. Lawmakers called for tighter security at the nation's airports after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"All of us here understand that we have entered a new era in transportation, an era in which a determined enemy has challenged one of America's most cherished freedoms -- namely, the freedom of mobility," Mineta said.

A spokesman for the Transportation Department said Tuesday that new guidelines have been issued to the airlines.

Currently about 10 percent of checked luggage is examined for explosives, generally using million-dollar explosive detection machines. But only 165 are in place at major airports, and thousands are needed to check the 3.5 million bags that airlines handle every day.

That is why Mineta told airlines they must establish a multi-layered system of security that will vary from airport to airport and use security tools such as expanded use of a computer-assisted passenger profiling system, manual bag searches, bomb-sniffing dogs and some kinds of X-ray systems.

Another option for the airlines is bag matching, meant to ensure that no luggage goes on a plane unless the passenger who checked it is on board.

Airlines have warned that this option could cause massive delays if they're forced to remove bags every time a passenger misses a connection or is bumped from an overbooked flight. Still, some airlines have told CNN they will rely mostly on bag-matching to meet Friday's deadline.

DOT sources confirm that, for now, they'll only require bag-matching on the first leg of a passenger's trip. They say 65-70 percent of all flights are single-leg flights.

Critics, including flight attendants, insist bag matching alone won't work.

"You have to allow for the possibility of a suicide bomber, someone who doesn't care if they're on the airplane and it blows up," said Pat Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants.

One aviation security expert warned that using the 175 canine teams in place at 39 airports presents problems as well. Former FAA security chief Cathal Flynn said the dogs are trained to search planes, rooms or unattended bags for explosives.

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

Meanwhile, United, American and some other airlines are doing bag-screening trial runs, and at least one has seen dozens of delayed flights. Those delays are increasing concerns that new measures could lead, at least initially, to aviation gridlock.

Families of September 11 victims said even if that gridlock becomes a reality, airlines should not be left off the hook to meet the screening requirement.

"This is a standard that the airlines have to be held to," said Stephen Push of the advocacy group Families of Sept. 11. Push's wife, Lisa Raines, was among the victims who died when the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

"If they can't implement the procedures by the deadline, then the airline should be shut down until they can do it," he said.

But DOT spokesman Lenny Alcivar said passengers should take comfort in the fact that "this is the maximum level of security Americans have ever had" at the nation's airports.

"The more important deadline -- the real milestone -- is December 31, 2002, when every bag be screened by explosive detection systems," he said, "Friday's deadline is not the end of the line, it's just the beginning."