…And Cabin Crews Balk At TSA’s Latest Changes

When the Transportation Security Administration announced new passenger-screening procedures and a revised prohibited-items list last week, the Air Line Pilots Association thought it was a good idea. “We feel it’s a move in the right direction,” Bob Hesselbein, chairman of ALPA’s security committee, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We have to keep the focus on the facts of the terrorists and the techniques they use, not on our fears of what they could do.” The new list will allow small scissors and screwdrivers on board. However, the Association of Flight Attendants – whose members work in the passenger cabin, while pilots operate behind locked doors — opposes the change. Allowing scissors on planes “is taking a huge step backwards in terms of security,” the group’s spokeswoman, Corey Caldwell, told the AJC. The new rules will mandate more random screenings, fewer prohibited items and a focus on detecting more serious threats, such as explosives, the TSA said last week. The changes take effect Dec. 22. Knives and box cutters remain on the prohibited list.