New pat-down rules take effect
From Brian Todd
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Even when delicately done, there's a certain move that has made some female airline passengers cringe.
One of them, a former congresswoman, recently chose to drive more than seven hours, rather than fly and endure it.
"I thought, this is pretty aggressive and invasive -- to pat a woman's torso down, especially around the breast area," says Helen Chenoweth-Hage, a former Republican congresswoman from Idaho.
Many complaints like that from female passengers prompted the Transportation Security Administration to revise the pat-down. As of Thursday, screeners are not allowed to routinely touch passengers between their breasts. They can only touch the perimeters of the chest, backside, and abdomen.
"We listen to our traveling public and we're looking at how to make this a little more comfortable," says TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield.
It may be more comfortable, but will travelers be safer?
Screeners were ordered to conduct more frequent and thorough passenger searches in September after two plane crashes in Russia, believed to have been caused by Chechen women who carried explosives on board.
One screener at Boston's Logan Airport told CNN if the new pat downs are just as safe, it means the old procedures weren't even necessary.
Full pat-downs are still allowed if an alarm goes off when a passenger is being "wanded" or irregular clothing is detected.
Women give the pat-down mixed reviews.
"It was a little strange but it was not evasive at all. She was very polite; told me what she was going to do. It was very quick," said one passenger of.
"Well, they always come dangerously close to where you think they shouldn't and this time, most times they tell you that if they're going to pat in a sensitive area, they'll use the back of their hands but this woman, I guess in the rush, patted wherever they needed to," another passenger said.
Some screeners believe those areas can be searched tactfully with the use of ETD's -- Explosive Trace Detection machines.
Screeners check material with handheld devices, and then run the swabs through those machines. ETD's are in place in every U.S. airport, but are now only being used on luggage.
A TSA official told CNN, ETD's cannot be used on passengers because they get contaminated by body fluids and other substances from the skin. And he says if they tried to modify the machines and use them on passengers it would dramatically slow the screening process.
