Posted on 06/20/2002 11:37:26 AM PDT by The Energizer
Northwest: Airlines to seek approval for eye-scan check-ins
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) Northwest Airlines and other major carriers plan to ask the Transportation Security Administration in July to allow them to test a check-in system using cards with encrypted eye scans, company officials said.
Northwest hopes the ``registered traveler'' would give its frequent flyers a faster way to get through security, said Dirk McMahon, senior vice president of customer service.
``If the TSA approves, Northwest will use its employees to start the pilot program at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by fall,'' McMahon said Wednesday.
If the test program succeeds, Northwest would expand it to customers and implement it at its other hubs in Detroit and Memphis, Tenn., and beyond, he said.
Federal Aviation Administration chief Jane Garvey said in early November that she wanted to implement a voluntary system for frequent flyers in which law enforcement agencies would do thorough background checks and store the data in a federal computer system. The passengers would be issued ``smart cards'' containing their data.
The idea behind registered or ``trusted'' travelers is that air passengers who have backgrounds known to the airlines shouldn't have to be patted down, scoured with metal-detector wands or have their luggage inspected.
But privacy advocates have raised warnings about identity card systems, saying the government would need to safeguard personal data.
Under Northwest's proposed test program, employees would carry cards containing an encrypted scan of their iris, which is harder to duplicate than a fingerprint pattern.
When employees come to the security checkpoint, they would look into a scanning machine, confirm their identity and then go through a more cursory security check similar to what passengers experienced before Sept. 11.
The program's aim would be to exempt passengers from thorough screenings after they check in at the main terminal. Participants also would be able to avoid random screening at airport gates, McMahon said.
The goal is to have one identification card that would work at any major airport and with any major airline, he said.
``We are aware of what Northwest and others are doing, and we're looking at a variety of options,'' said Greg Warren, spokesman for TSA, a new government agency that is set to have complete control of domestic airport security by November.
McMahon said it now takes passengers about 17 seconds to walk through a metal detector and have their carry-on baggage scanned. Before Sept. 11, the process took about 5 seconds, he said.
Trial of a similar system has been under way since February at London's Heathrow Airport as an alternative to checking passports. In that system, an enrolled passenger's iris is scanned against a digital image that is stored in a computer data base.
Saudi Arabia also has used digital eye scanners as one tool to search for suspected terrorists at its borders.
I'm guessing that you probably will be pulled out for a closer search if instead of looking into the machine at the gate you pull somebody else's eyeball out of your turban and hold it in front of the scanner.
So they can quicky give them a job offer.
Terrorist note to self. Obtain trusted traveller status.
Until our borders are protected we are still as vulnerable now as we were on 9/11.
It's always voluntary in the beginning.
My thoughts exactly!
That's after about a 20 minute wait in line to get to the detector and 2 minutes to unload your pockets and take the laptop out of its case, after which you could still be pulled aside for a random check. 17 seconds is not an inconvenience. 25 minutes is.
I have no problem with a voluntary system, but just how voluntary is it when you have the choice of waiting 25 minutes (and keeping your privacy) or wait 5 seconds (and give up some of your privacy)?
The real answer is to dramatically increase the size of the security checkpoints, but that may add a lot of cost to flying.
It's even voluntary later on. You either volunteer to do it, or you volunteer to not fly.
BTW,anybody remember "volunteer non-smoking sections"? What about "We aren't trying to tell anybody they can't smoke,we just want a place of our own where people who don't smoke can eat."
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