Airport

            All new bomb-detecting equipment is being installed in our four-hundred and twenty-nine airports as we speak. They must do this because of the recent act that was passed as of November 19, 2002. This act that was just mentioned is the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA). As for bomb detectors, only one-hundred and sixty-one have been installed and two- thousand two- hundred are needed. The United States is working hard to secure our local airports so that flying will be much safer. Besides the bomb detectors, airports are getting bomb-sniffing dogs to do some of the work. These dogs are the ones that the police use today. Do not forget about the old-fashioned manual searches, because they are still in place, along with the regular hand-held scanners (Janofsky).
             Airports used to be operated by private companies, but after September 11th they were handed over to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). TSA was born the same day as the ATSA was passed. TSA will be taking over all airports across the country, from the smallest airports to the biggest ones. The employees who worked in the airports are still the same, but now must go through a training program for safety inspectors. The safety inspectors now know how to check and search the baggage in the correct way. They also must know what passengers can and cannot bring onto the airplane. Being an airport safety inspector is not an easy job (Lichtblau).
             Along with knowing about the new equipment, you may want to know about screening. There are three types of screening in the airports today. First of all there are baggage checkpoints. This is where safety inspectors make sure that baggage is safe and does not contain any type of harmful objects. They also make sure that the bag you have is your bag and not someone else's. Besides baggage checkpoints there are passenger checkpoints. These are just like the baggage checkpoints, but the only difference is that passenger checkpoints deal with people.