Saturday, April 27, 2019 12:02:14 PM
(With Video)
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) —
What happens when your suitcase disappears behind the ticket counter? The Transportation Security Administration on Friday gave KCCI a special behind the scenes look at the baggage screening area at the airport to find out.
"The threats are always evolving, so we have to be on our toes to make sure we are deterring those threats," said Jason Channon, TSA security manager at the Des Moines International Airport.
"We don't want prohibited items or anything that's dangerous that is going to take down an aircraft," he said. "That's what we are here for."
Most travelers don't get to see the process when the checked luggage goes from the ticket counter, through security and into the belly of the airplane.
A KCCI crew followed a special bag that eventually set off a security alarm. The first stop was a giant CT scanner, which examines the inside of luggage and detects explosives or other dangerous items.
"It slices, we like to say, like a loaf of broad," Channon said. "It provides individual slices of a bag."
If the machine detects a potential problem, the alarm goes off and a TSA screener checks the 3D view of the luggage. For security reasons, KCCI can't show that screen.
The TSA agent either resolves the issue or sends the bag on for further screening. Another TSA agent then uses a vacuum-like device to transfer the suitcase from the belt to a special screening station.
The agent also looks at a 3D picture of the luggage and knows exactly where to look in the suitcase. The agent checks for explosive trace residue. If there is no problem, the bag heads onto another moving belt, out of security, into the baggage loading area and onto a plane.
Channon compared the process to finding a "needle in a haystack. ... That's what we are looking for every day. That's what we train our officers to look for."
TSA agents said their goal is to screen a bag in less than two minutes. Airport managers said the baggage screening area is out of room with more flyers traveling through Des Moines, but they said a new airport will help solve that problem.
https://www.kcci.com/article/tsa-checking-for-danger-like-finding-needle-in-a-haystack/27289028
"Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they're doing."
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