How has the screening for passengers changed since 9/11?
Since September 11th, we've seen a lot of changes to what we do with screening of passengers at the airport. A couple of summers ago we saw some Russian airliners explode in Russia because of body-borne explosives. It immediately identified the need to increase explosive detection at the security checkpoint. A couple of years ago, the 9/11 Commission recommended that we increase explosive screening at the security checkpoint. We've implemented what we call a pat-down screening, where we check passengers using physical touching on the person. We are screening for anomalies on a person, something that might be on their torso or on their legs, that they've hidden on themselves to introduce into the secure area of the airport. We've also introduced new technologies, such as the backscanner machine, which essentially takes an x-ray image of a person so that we can see if there's anything hidden on the body. We also have what are called the puffer machines, where we screen for explosive traces on passengers. Passengers are screened for explosives using both hands and technology.
