The agency says the problems only affected Sky Harbor.
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TSA has pinpointed tightened security steps and lower budget allocation as reasons for the long lines.
Connolly added that United Airlines reported 7,000 passengers missed flights in March as a result of long TSA lines. An inspector general testified before Congress past year that the agency has problems with technology, procedure and human errors and that “layers of security were simply missing”.
PreCheck gives previously vetted passengers special screening.
“There needs to be improvements everywhere”, Pope said.
Cagle said that erased all the gains the airport had made.
TSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the video.
The technical problem, which lasted for hours on Thursday, prevented checked baggage from being screened. “TSA expects no further impact to operations”, Melendez said Friday afternoon. We’re going to bring on more resources to meet the increased demand but we’re going to keep at our principle job, which is the protection of the American people. At some airports, lines during peak hours have topped 90 minutes.
At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, American held flights Friday morning because passengers were waiting in security lines. That means there are almost 5,000 fewer screening officers on the job today, compared to just a few years ago. It was not immediately known how numerous airport’s 16 airlines faced bag delays, but Southwest was significantly affected, Melendez said. At least one airline chose to send bags to other airports for screening.
“This is not a solution”, he said.
The head of the Transportation Security Administration says a network switch failure led to the breakdown of the baggage-screening system at the Phoenix airport. And he said both the federal government and the airlines were teaming up to market TSA’s PreCheck program; he said the government was also encouraging businesses to reimburse their employees for the enrollment fee.
Airline passengers get their identification and boarding passes checked as part of TSA screening on Friday, April 8, 2016, at the Albany International Airport in Colonie, N.Y. The ordeal demonstrated TSA’s need for a sufficient backup system and more manpower, he said. The TSA is also working with airlines to reduce the size of carry-on luggage and their number. “It seems like there is no plan B”.
TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger said Friday that the failure caused the software system that scans for explosives to go into a continual reboot cycle.
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Atlanta’s airport, which handled a record 100 million passengers a year ago, may provide a solution. An alarm sounds if a suspicious object is detected. When everything is working properly, only about 10 percent of all checked bags are hand-searched by TSA officers.
