Report: Airlines to match domestic passengers, bags

May 6, 1997
Web posted at: 9:44 a.m. EDT (1344 GMT)

(CNN) -- Airlines will begin matching checked baggage with passengers on some domestic flights at a dozen major airports Tuesday. Some flights will likely be delayed during the two-week test.

The action, which will run through May 19, is one of the moves that a White House commission on airline security suggested would help keep bombs off planes. The commission was formed after the crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island, New York.

Unaccompanied bags have long been a focus of airline security. The explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, which killed 270 people, was eventually linked to explosives in a bag loaded in Frankfurt, Germany, without its owner.

Checked luggage is already matched to passengers on international flights, where passengers arrive hours ahead of time to check in. But airlines have long argued bag-matching is impractical for the far greater number of domestic flights operated within the United States.

And delays at a major hub like Chicago's O'Hare Airport could slow down many other flights waiting to depart. To help alleviate this pressure, the testing rules allow an airline to end the delay if it hasn't found the unmatched bag after 20 minutes, industry officials said.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler would not tell the newspaper what airports were chosen, nor provide other details. However, according to USA Today, flights will be selected at random and include all models of aircraft, since it takes a different amount of time to unload the bags or containers filled with bags from each type.

The bag-matching test will not incorporate the controversial practice of computer profiling those passengers who are deemed "suspicious." USA Today reported.

Related stories:

• Traveling? Be ready for tight security - November 25, 1996
• Airports testing new security methods - November 6, 1996
• Clinton signs airport security measures into law - October 9, 1996
• Reno defends billion-dollar anti-terrorism plan - September 12, 1996

Related sites:

• FAA Aviation Security Laboratory
• U.S. State Dept. Hijacking Survival Guidelines
• IATA Directory of Airline Security Representatives (Order form)
• Terrorism: How vulnerable is the United States?
• Terrorism Research Center Links

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