01/11/2002 - Updated 12:22 AM ET Travelers could face chaos at nation's airports

By Traci Watson, USA TODAY

Starting next Friday morning, the nation's airlines will have to do security inspections on millions more checked bags than they inspected Thursday. Don't expect everything to go smoothly. "I think it's going to be hellacious to travel in the U.S. for the next year or two," says James Aldo, a developer of security technology. If Aldo's prediction is borne out — others are also pessimistic — travelers will have a new law to blame. Known as the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, it set a Jan. 18 deadline for airlines to screen all checked luggage, from an infant's car seat to a grandmother's needlepoint valise. Before Sept. 11, only 2% to 10% of the passenger baggage tossed into a jet's belly got screened. The security act, which Congress passed in mid-November, gave airlines 60 days to start screening all checked luggage — a total of 1.4 billion pieces in 2000, 3.8 million a day on average.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2002

Answers

What exactly does "screening" mean?? Does anyone know?? Do that actually have to look in it? When we travel to Haiti on our missions trips, our checked bags are all taped up with ducktape to avoid stealing on the other end. Our checked bags are always filled to the absolute brim with medical supplies etc. I just can not imagine what that is going to mean to us.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2002

I think "screening" means, primarily, putting the bags through an x-ray machine. However, as I understand it, there is random opening of bags. I would suspect that any luggage taped securely with duct tape would be a prime candidate for opening. If I were you, I would check well ahead of time with the airport security people, see what you can work out. Perhaps there are now secure, padlocked straps available for luggage. Dunno.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2002