It comes amid fears that a plane crash which killed 224 passengers and crew may have been caused by a bomb on board.
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The enhancements include expanded screening to items on planes and offers of assistance to certain foreign airports, the statement said.
On Friday, Russian Federation announced that it will suspend all flights to Egypt until security is improved at its airports.
There is still no hard evidence of a bomb, but what investigators do have are intercepted communications from the terror group indicating a plot, and heat flashes picked up by a US satellite, one flash followed by three more as the plane fell to the Earth, indicative of an explosion.
President Obama said Thursday in a series of radio interviews that “there’s a possibility that there was a bomb on board”. Britain grounded all flights to and from the Sinai Peninsula Wednesday, after it determined there was a “significant possibility” the Russian airliner was brought down by a bomb.
The White House announced in the wake of this Metrojet crash they are reviewing security and really reviewing it at overseas airports for flights inbound.
The new security measures are “interim” and “precautionary enhancements” taken “out of an abundance of caution”, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson insisted in a statement on Friday afternoon. It remains unclear what airports will be affected.
“We know that the procedures we have here in the USA are different than a few of the procedures that existed for outbound and inbound flights here”, Obama added. “It will include, I think the reconfiguration at a few airports of access points in and out”.
CBS2’s Kara Finnstrom reported there now are no US airlines that directly service the region of Egypt where the crash took place.
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Johnson said the DHS will “continually assess our aviation security enhancements, and consider whether additional changes are appropriate”.
