In the nearly seven years since the tragic attacks on 9/11, air travel has gotten steadily slower, later and more irritating. A raft of new regulations has helped make loafers the most popular shoe for flying, limited carry-on liquids to a few ounces, and introduced hundreds of Americans to the thrills of a pat-down search.
But Congressman Bernie Thompson (D-Mississippi), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has failed to identify and implement new technologies that could make check-ins faster and flying safer.
“The snail’s pace of deploying new technology is unacceptable,” Thompson told Washington Post reporter Del Quentin Wilber in a recent interview. “We remain vulnerable because we have not kept up with technological innovation.”
Last year, a report by the Government Accountability Office was critical of the TSA’s efforts to bring new screening technologies online. Among other things, the GAO noted that the TSA requested funds for fiscal year 2007 to operate approximately 434 explosives trace portals (the large doorways that blow puffs of air over travelers to dislodge any possible molecules of explosives).
The GAO found, however, that the TSA “halted the acquisition and deployment of the portals in June 2006” due to maintenance and performance issues. The Washington Post found that the portals were unable to cope with the challenging airport environment and fell victim to dirt, dust and jet fumes. More than a hundred of the portals, each of which cost the TSA tens of thousands of dollars to purchase, are sitting in a Texas warehouse while the TSA tries to figure out how to make them more durable.
Another security innovation, the so-called back-scatter X-ray machine, has been slowed by significant privacy concerns. The device works by scanning passengers with a low-intensity X-ray that provides the machine technician with a…