Some of Northwest Airlines' most frequent fliers tried the nation's first
biometric security screening for passengers Wednesday at Minneapolis-St.
Paul International Airport. Not all got what they bargained for.
Joe Franko, a south Minneapolis businessman who said he travels
every week, signed up because he figured as a "registered traveler"
-- the government's name for the program -- he wouldn't have to remove his
laptop computer from its case during screening. Wrong.
Franko not only had to unwrap his laptop but also had to remove
his shoes and jacket and pass through the checkpoint metal detector twice
before getting the thumbs up to head for the gate.
"There you go," he said with a resigned shrug toward
reporters and photographers on the other side of security.
Still, he said he liked the speed and smoothness of the first
step: pressing his index finger on a screen at a 6-foot-high kiosk, where
a computer compared the image with his previously encoded fingerprint.
He said he hoped the system would help reduce the hour-and-a-half waiting
time he often allows for airport security clearance.
Starting June 28, about 2,400 of Northwest's invited customers
and crew members volunteered for the program, many expecting to save time
by avoiding some security screening. Gary Fishman, a Northwest senior vice
president, said the airline's Platinum Elite customers were invited because
their frequent travel would make them more likely to use the system during
the 90-day test period.
Passengers agreed to have their backgrounds checked,
and their fingerprints and iris images stored electronically
in return for becoming part of the system.
By midafternoon Wednesday, nearly six hours after the system
made its debut, 74 passengers had passed through a walkway reserved for
them at the main terminal. The reserved lane will be staffed from 5 a.m.
to 8 p.m. daily.
Like every other passenger, they still had to submit to initial
screening at a metal detector and X-ray machine for carry-on items. But
their status as registered travelers exempted them from the random secondary
screening that the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
uses to provide another line of defense against potential terrorism.
Under a $5 million appropriation from Congress, airports in
Los Angeles, Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C., soon will begin similar
90-day tests, trying out fingerprint screening, iris comparisons and cards
coded with passengers' personal information.
Carol DiBattiste, the TSA's chief of staff, said her agency
"will be challenging the system" to make "a fair and honest
assessment" of its effectiveness and reliability.
If the program is approved for widespread deployment, it is
not clear who will pay for it. Fishman said that his airline prefers that
passengers pay extra fees and that a Northwest survey found many passengers
willing to do so. DiBattiste said only that the financing method is under
discussion.
Bert Harman, a Twin Cities-area businessman who was among
the first to use the system Wednesday, said he felt strongly enough about
increased waiting times following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that he
had written to members of Congress urging action.
But passengers and airline and government officials said they
don't expect waiting times to shrink much at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport because the screening system already functions relatively smoothly
there.
Amy Tourand, a Minneapolis passenger who travels about four
times a month for the Carlson Marketing Group, said the wait at the Orlando
airport is "awful" while Los Angeles is "horrible."
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