Security

Building a better bomb-proof bag

Airplanes, aviation, Security, ,

As someone who flies a lot, I try not to fret too much about whether or not there could be a bomb on my plane. But the reality is, there’s currently no way for authorities to make sure that the luggage and cargo put on a plane is 100% bomb-free.

So in putting together this story for msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, I was glad to learn about efforts underway to build a better bomb-proof bag.

Bomb-proof bag for airplanes being tested

Testing the bomb-proof bag. Photo courtesy of the University of Sheffield

A team of international engineers has been busy blowing up baggage in an effort to perfect a flexible, bomb-proof cargo container for airplanes.

The goal is to replace the large, expensive cases currently used by some airlines and prevent or minimize the damage that might result from an explosion in an aircraft cargo hold.

“Israel puts one [hard container] on each El Al flight where high risk luggage is stored,” said Jeff Price, an associate professor and aviation security expert at the Metropolitan State College of Denver. “But the argument against their use is weight. If you increase the weight of the plane, you must decrease it somewhere else. In the eyes of the airlines, then passengers, cargo or mail – i.e. ‘revenue,’ – must be reduced.”

That’s why the lighter “Fly-Bag,” being tested at The University of Sheffield in England, is drawing attention.

“Airlines have been reticent to fly with hardened containers due to their high capital and ongoing cost. We should be able to offer something cheaper,” said Jim Warren of the university’s department of civil and structural engineering.

The Fly-Bag is made of “multiple layers of lightweight materials, composites and membranes,” including fabric impregnated with shear thickening fluids that increase their viscosity in response to impact, Warren said. Suitcases and cargo are placed inside the larger bag before being loaded onto an airplane. If a bomb detonates inside one piece of luggage, the Fly-Bag is designed to absorb the force of the explosion.

“To test it, we built a full scale prototype, filled it with suitcases containing clothes, towels and other items we bought at a left luggage auction in the UK. We put a surrogate IED [improvised explosive device] in one bag and blew it up,” said Warren, who expects the Fly-Bag to be on market within one to two years.

“I think this type of product has good potential application for select threats,” said Solomon Wong, executive vice president of InterVISTAS, a travel and transportation consulting firm. He notes that other products involving venting and foam or curtain-wall systems to absorb the shock of explosive devices are also being looked at, but these can’t be immediately deployed “due to some unresolved safety issues.”

And while the Fly-Bag may turn out to be a better bomb-proof cargo container, it still does not address explosives terrorists may bring onboard in carry-on luggage or, as officials warned last week, implanted on passengers flying into the U.S. from abroad.

To address that security threat, the Transportation Security Administration said “passengers flying from international locations to U.S. destinations may notice additional security measures in place,” that could include more pat-downs, bag screenings and questioning.

Wong doesn’t foresee a day when passengers will be placed in bomb-proof Fly-Bags, but he does think we’ll see bomb-resistant airplanes, so that “a blast in the cabin of an aircraft or hold does not result in catastrophic failure of the fuselage.”

Pistole nixes TSA privatization; LAX saves butterflies

Security, , , ,

Close to a dozen airports around the country have applied for – and were planning to apply for –the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program (SPP), which allows airports to replace government screeners with those employed by TSA-approved private companies.  [See my story: Toss the TSA?]

16 airports, including those in San Francisco and Kansas City, are currently part of that SPP program and seem pretty happy with it. But last Friday TSA administrator John Pistole issued a memo saying he will not allow the program to expand.

“These airports will continue to be regulated by TSA and required to meet our high security standards,” Pistole said, “However, to preserve TSA as an effective, federal counterterrorism security network, SPP will not be expanded beyond the current 16 airports, unless a clear and substantial advantage to do so emerges in the future.”

TSA employees who feared losing their jobs to out-sourcing, are pleased with Pistole’s plan. But the decision doesn’t sit well with John Mica (R-Fla) who has been actively urging airports to “opt-out” of TSA-staffed screening. Mica just became chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and plans to launch an investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, at Los Angeles International Airport, one of the airports considering the TSA ‘opt-out’ program, there was some good news about butterflies.

In addition to terminals and runways, there’s a 200-acre butterfly habitat at LAX designed to reintroduce and protect the coastal buckwheat plant, which is the only food the El Segundo Blue butterfly eats.

A seasonal field study and analysis of the butterfly was recently completed and it shows that, in 2010, the population of El Segundo Blue butterflies was somewhere between 111,000 and 116,000; and increase of about 30% over 2009.

Toss the TSA? 16 airports have done it; others mulling it over.

Airports, Security,

[An edited version of this story appears on msnbc.com: Airports toy with the idea of tossing the TSA.]

Writing a “We want a replacement” letter to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) tops the post-holiday to-do list of Larry Dale, president of Orlando Sanford International Airport.

“All of our due diligence shows it’s the way to go,” said Dale.

Along with Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell, MT and several other airports around the country, Sanford International has decided to ask TSA to turn day-to-day airport screening duties over to a private firm.

“The TSA has grown too big and we’re unhappy with the way it’s been doing things. My board is sold on the fact that the free enterprise system works well and that we should go with a private company we can hold directly accountable for security and customer satisfaction,” said Dale.

In response to passenger complaints and encouragement from elected officials such as Rep. John Mica (R-Fla), who has referred to TSA’s “army of more than 67,000” as a “bloated, poorly focused and top-heavy bureaucracy,” airports in Charlotte, Los Angeles and even the Washington, D.C. metro area are among other airports toying with tossing the TSA as well.

This despite the fact that opt-out airports realize no cost savings: “TSA issues the RFP [request for proposal] and selects and manages the contractor” that steps in, said Michael McCarron, Director of Community Affairs at San Francisco International Airport, one of the first airports to switch to private screeners.

Nor will passengers at opt-out airports be able to sidestep the hassles of what many feel are far-too invasive security checkpoint procedures. According to TSA spokesperson Greg Soule, at the more than 450 commercial airports in the United States, “TSA sets the security standards that must be followed and that includes the use of enhanced pat downs and imaging technology, if installed at the airport.”

Still, airports studying the opt-out program believe there may be benefits worth pursuing.

“While Los Angeles World Airports has always enjoyed a very successful relationship with the TSA at our airports, we aim to ensure that the highest level of security is balanced by the most passenger-friendly service possible. Contracting private screeners could be a method to achieve this goal, and it is an option we are currently exploring,” said Nancy Suey Castle, a LAWA spokesperson.

Federal vs. Private: not a new option

The idea of switching checkpoint responsibilities from TSA screeners to employees of private firms is not new.

When the TSA was created, in 2001, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ASTA) mandated that a pilot program be put in place by November 2002 to allow screening by private companies under federal oversight.

Five airports signed up immediately: San Francisco International Airport, Kansas City International Airport, Greater Rochester International Airport, Jackson Hole Airport and Tupelo Regional Airport.

Eleven other airports, including Sioux Falls Regional Airport in South Dakota, Florida’s Key West International Airport and seven airports in Montana, have joined TSA’s Screening Partnership Program (SPP) since then.

“We’re very good at what we do,” said Gerry Berry, president of Covenant Aviation Security, the private screening company hired by the TSA for San Francisco International, Sioux Falls Regional and several airports in Montana. “By law our screeners have to get the same pay and benefits as government screeners and we have to do an equal or better job.”

Airport officials say few travelers notice whether the people doing the checkpoint scanning and the pat-downs work for the TSA or a private company. But so far none of the 16 SSP airports has chosen to opt back into the federal screening program.

“We love our arrangement,” said Ray Bishop Director of the Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming.  “It delivers better customer service and security.”

Unlike government workers, notes Mark VanLoh, director of the Kansas City International Airport, problem employees working for contract screening companies “can be removed immediately.” And when there is an issue, VanLoh appreciates being able to call up the president of the private screening company. “Because I am a client, I usually get a return call immediately. We are all in the customer service business, so that’s a nice thing to have.”

The bottom line, says SFO’s Michael McCarron, is that “we feel our passengers are as safe as at any other airport. And by allowing [the private screening company] to handle the personnel management of the screening process, the TSA staff at SFO can focus its attention on security issues.”

Federal or private screeners: which way is better?

ACI-NA, which represents most all U.S. airports, is in favor of airports having the option to participate, or not, in TSA’s screening partnership program. Beyond advising airports about liability and other opt-out issues, “It’s up to the individual airports to determine whether or not participation is in their best interest” said Christopher Bidwell, ACI-NA’s vice-president of security and facilitation.

Airports currently in the SPP program do share their experiences with others, but Bidwell says although there have been two reports, one completed in 2004 and another in 2006, that show “there were some efficiencies under the private model…it would be helpful to have another study to shed new light.”

Many of the 200 airports that received a letter from Rep. Mica in November urging them to switch to private screening companies may be waiting for such a study.

At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, spokesperson Allan Siegel said “There are no discussions about using a private company to handle screenings.”

Detroit Metropolitan Airport spokesperson Scott Wintner said “We’re decidedly not interested in going back to private screening…We’re very happy with the service TSA provides to our customers!”

And Patrick Hogan at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport said after receiving the letter from Congressman Mica, “Our board discussed private screening in response to one of our 2011 strategic plan initiatives of keeping security wait times to 15 minutes or less. A private firm would still have to follow all TSA regulations and procedures, so it’s really just a matter of whether they could do the job more efficiently, streamlining the process. At this point, we don’t have a clear sense of whether that would be the case.”

For his part, Stewart Baker, a former official with the Department of Homeland Security and the author of “Skating on Stilts: Why We Aren’t Stopping Tomorrow’s Terrorism, is skeptical private screening is the way to go. “Ordinarily, as a Republican, I’d be more enthusiastic about more privatization. But private screeners won’t solve the problems we have. It may just create some new ones.”

“Contracting with private screening companies offers staffing flexibility and a few other advantages,” said Robert Poole, director of transportation policy for the Reason Foundation, a free market think-tank, “But the system is still very centralized and run too much by TSA.”

“The screening partnership program may be a step in the right direction,” said aviation consultant Michael Boyd, of Colorado-based Boyd Group International, “But ultimately, it doesn’t change the fact that people at the top are idiots. The real problem is that TSA needs to be totally rebuilt.”

“Regardless of who’s performing security, they’re working with a government process that is generally outdated and less efficient,” said Steve Lott of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The international organization, which represents the airline industry, recently unveiled a proposal for a redesigned “security checkpoint of the future” that uses biometric data to speed travelers through the airport experience. “We need to think a little more long term here,” said Lott.

What’s next?

Late last month, in an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said security measures now in place are “objectively safer” for airline passengers and will continue to be part of the airport experience for “the foreseeable future.”

Also last month, Rep. John Mica was named chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where he will surely continue to press for TSA reform while continuing to urge airports to opt-out of the federal screening program.

But real change, notes the Reason Foundation’s Poole, could from Congress. “2011 is the 10th anniversary of both the 9/11 attacks and the TSA. There’s a good chance we’ll have TSA reauthorization in Congress that will provide the opportunity to take a look at how TSA is working.”

In the meantime…

Meanwhile, back in Florida, Larry Dale of the Sanford Airport expects to have private screeners on duty in less than a year. “I’ve talked with John Mica, who is the congressman for our district, and we expect things to move along in an orderly fashion.”

That timeframe may prove unrealistic.

Cindi Martin, airport director of Glacier Park International Airport in Montana said her airport sent the TSA an SPP application in October 2009.

“We believe that for GPI this is best for the traveling public. Security standards will be met and the airport will have more input on staffing and customer service,” said Martin.

However, along with three other Montana airports, Martin reports GPI is still waiting for action.

And she says that delay is creating a new set of problems.

Knowing that a private contractor will eventually take over, “TSOs are retaliating against authority and the airport management staff,” said Martin, “And we’re getting no help from TSA management.”

[An edited (better?) version of this story appears on msnbc.com: Airlines toy with the idea of tossing the TSA.]

Note: After this story appeared on msnbc.com, I’ve received an email from Valyria N. Lewis, President of AFGE Local 555, which represents TSA workers in four states.  In responding to some of the points made in the story, she addresses the comment made by Cindy Martin, airport director of Glacier Park International Airport in Montana, about “TSOs retaliating against authority and the airport management staff.”

Ms. Lewis said:

Put yourself for just a moment, inside the mind of that officer, who from day to day, does not know if they will have a job, or if their child will have a meal, or if their new insurance would cover their child’s rare medical condition.  Place your feet in the shoes of the officer, who when told that their airport will privatize; don’t know if they will be among the millions of people, dreading the thought of receiving unemployment benefits that teeter on the vote of agenda driven republicans. Am I surprised that the employees are acting out; absolutely not.  Change all by itself is uncomfortable, but Uncertainty, when it comes to providing for your family is unbearable.  I would think the very idea would be stressful enough for me to not be able to focus on my day to day duties.  I sincerely hope that this pressure is not affecting their performance of their screening duties.  I can only imagine the amount of sleep lost with the worry.  I pray that the officials, who make these decisions, consider these things.

National Opt-Out Day a dud

Air Travel, Security, , , ,

Sea-Tac security line

I spent Wednesday hanging around Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) wandering from one security checkpoint to another in case there was any interesting mass opt-out action I could report on for a story being put together by msnbc.com.

But, as you can tell from the headline of the story – Planned airport protests fail to take off – there was no mass opt-out action.

In fact, on what is traditionally one of the busiest travel days of the year, Sea-Tac, like a lot of other airports around the country, was remarkably empty.  According to a police officer riding by on a Segway, the biggest problem at the airport was the 40-minute line at the Starbucks outlet just beyond security.

The checkpoint  lines I was monitoring were so empty that the TSA employees on duty had plenty of time to be jolly. They were showering travelers with courtesy (“Step right up. We’ve been waiting for you. What a nice jacket!”) and waving at folks passing by.

Even the planned opt-out demonstration was a fizzle. Less than a half dozen people showed up to hand out pamphlets (“What the Transportation Security Administration isn’t telling you…”) and there were few takers.

Opt-out a fizzle

Of course, not everyone flies somewhere for Thanksgiving. A lot of folks stay home and plenty of people take to the roads.

If you do drive somewhere this weekend, here’s a handy map with information about the state-by-state distracted driving laws.  The map was put together by the folks at iZUP using information published by the Governors Highway Safety Administration.

Tales of the TSA: Pat-down leaves bladder cancer survivor covered in urine

Security

Heading into the weekend, we were all alarmed to read the report of a cancer survivor forced to show her prosthetic breast at an airport security checkpoint.

Then on Saturday morning, an msnbc.com editor asked me to follow up on an email about an incident involving Lansing, Michigan resident Thomas D. Sawyer. (“Yes, my mother named me ‘Tom Sawyer’, Mr. Sawyer told me when started chatting on the phone.)

Here’s the story:

61 year-old Sawyer is a retired special education teacher and a one-time National Teacher of the Year. He ended up humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach.

“I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes.”

On November 7th, Sawyer went through the security scanner at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. “Evidently the scanner picked up on my urostomy bag, because I was chosen for a pat down procedure.”

Due his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be screened in private. “One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn’t have any place to take me,” said Sawyer. “After I said again that I’d like privacy they took me to an office.”

Sawyer wears pants two sizes too large in order to accommodate the medical equipment he wears. He’d taken off his belt to go through the scanner and once in the office with the TSOs, his pants fell down around his ankles. “I had to ask twice if it was OK to pull up my shorts,” said Sawyer, “And every time I tried to tell them about my medical condition they said they didn’t need to know about that.”

Before starting the enhanced pat-down procedure, the TSOs did tell him what they were going to do and how they were going to it, but Sawyer says it wasn’t until they asked him to remove his sweatshirt and saw his urostomy bag that they asked any questions about his medical condition.

“One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal on was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants.”

The TSO finished the pat-down, tested the gloves for any trace of explosives and then, Sawyer said, “He told me I could go. They never apologized. They never offered to help. They acted like they hadn’t seen what happened. But I know they saw it because I had a wet mark.”
Humiliated, upset and wet, Sawyer didn’t even ask for the TSOs names. “You’re afraid they won’t let you fly if you say something and they think you’re being rude. I just wanted to get out of that room as fast I could,” said Sawyer, who then had to walk through the airport, get on his plane and wait until after takeoff to clean up.

Sawyer completed his trip and had no problems with the security procedures at the Orlando International Airport on his return trip. He says he hasn’t filed a formal complaint yet with the TSA. When he does, says TSA spokesperson Dwayne Baird, “We will review the matter and take appropriate action if necessary.” In the meantime, Baird encourages anyone with a medical condition to read the TSA’s website section on Assistive Devised and Mobility Aids.

Sawyer has written to his senators, state representatives and the president of the United States.  He’s also shared details of the incident on-line with members of the non-profit Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, many of whom have offered support and shared their travel experiences.

Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network executive director Claire Saxton said that there are hundreds of thousands of people living with ostomies in the United States. “TSA agents need to be trained to listen when someone tells them they have a health issue and trained in knowing what an ostomy is. No one living with an ostomy should be afraid of flying because they’re afraid of being humiliated at the checkpoint.”

Eric Lipp, executive director of Open Doors Association, which works with businesses and the disability community, called what happened to Sawyer “unfortunate.”

“But enhanced pat-downs are not a new issue for people with disabilities who travel,” Lipp said. “They’ve always had trouble getting through the security checkpoint.”

Still, Lipp said the TSA knows there’s a problem. “This came up during a recent meeting of the agency’s disability advisory board and I expect to see a procedure coming in place shortly that will directly address the pat-down procedures for people with disabilities.”

See this story – TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine – and the more than 1000 comments from readers on msnbc.com.

(More) stories on opt-out day, enhanced pat-downs and body scanners

Air Travel, Security, , ,

TSA BACKSCATTER

Have you had it up to here yet with stories about how mad people are about TSA enhanced pat-down procedures, the dangers (or not) of “naked scanners” and the pre-Thanksgiving “opt-out” campaign?

If not, then take a few moments to read some of these thoughtful, and perhaps useful, stories:

In a Wall Street Journal article, Will Turkey Day Fliers Cry Foul, Scott McCartney wrote a great overview of what next week will be like at the nation’s airports, what with enhanced pat-downs and full-body scanners and all.

On his blog, social media entrepreneur Peter Shankman makes a case against the National Opt-Out Day in A Rant About the TSA Ranters.

On his Flying with Fish blog, Steven Frischling writes about the TSA’s enhanced pat-downs from some screeners’ point of view.

And on its blog, the TSA offers explanations for stories we’ve been hearing about “leaked images, handcuffed hosts, religious garb and more..”

Opt out or opt in? Airport scanners & pat-downs in the news

Air Travel, Airports, Legislation, Safety, Security, Stuck at the Airport, , , ,

TSA BACKSCATTER

The news has been filled with stories about the TSA’s new enhanced body pat-downs, the new airport body scanners and campaigns encouraging people to opt out of the scanning process. Travelers left and right are posting their accounts of the pat-down process.

Need to catch up? Here are some of the stories:

USA TODAY has posted two opinion pieces on the airport scanning issue:

Our view on security vs. privacy: Critics bash airport scans, but what’s their alternative?

and

Opposing view on security vs. privacy: Honor basic dignity by James Babb and George Donnelly, the co-founders of the We Won’t Fly group.

Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, of Miracle on the Hudson fame, shared his opinion about whether or not airline personnel should be subjected to full body pat-downs and advanced imaging scanners.

and

Gizmodo got its hands on – and posted – photographs of 100 of the 35,000 images U.S. Marshals in a Florida Federal Courthouse saved on a scanner. These images don’t come from an airport scanner – Department of Homeland Security and TSA have promised that airport scanners do not have the capability to save images – but Gizmodo and others clearly aren’t confident that’s the real story.

There’s more. LOTS more.  Check back later….

Airport pat-downs, body-scanners, x-rays and you

Air Travel, Airports, Security, Terrorism, , , ,

TSA BACKSCATTER

There’s been a flurry of news – some real, some fussed-up – about concerns and confrontations about body-scanners and enhanced pat-downs at airports.

Need to catch up?

This Reuters article explains the concerns pilots have about stepped up screening at U.S. airports.

On his NPR blog, Shots, Richard Knox does a great job of laying out the difference between, and the debate about, the safety of the new scanners.

The TSA blog posted video – and the original radio interview – concerning a young woman who claims she was cuffed to a chair at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport.

This fellow caused a hubbub at San Diego International Airport by refusing the pat-down after deciding to opt-out of the scanning machine.

And there’s a group trying to organize Opt Out Day at airports nationwide on November 24, 2010.

Study up. Things are just going to get curiouser from here…

Paperless boarding passes: benefit or bother?

Air Travel, Airline policies, Airports, Cell Phones, Rules, Safety, Security, , , ,

We’ve all become accustomed to checking in for our flights on-line and printing out our boarding passes at home or at an airport kiosk on our way to the security checkpoint.

Now the TSA is working with five airlines and 70 airports to test paperless boarding passes.

Here’s how it works: When a traveler checks in on-line the airline emails a boarding pass in the form of a 2-D barcode that can be downloaded to a smartphone. The barcode on the phone can be scanned at the security checkpoint and by the airline gate agent; just like a paper pass.

It’s sound great, doesn’t it?

. But as I wrote in my most recent msnbc.com column – Going paperless: Tech-savvy air travelers on board – it’s probably not a good idea to disconnect your printer just yet. Electronic passes aren’t accepted everywhere. And they’re not fool-proof. “One of the first times I used one, my phone browser refreshed and I lost the boarding pass 30 seconds before boarding,” recalls Walter Hopgood, a frequent business traveler from Damascus, Oregon.

Path to paperless

Some airlines in Europe, Canada and Asia have been using paperless boarding passes since early 2007, but the United States has been behind the curve on adopting the new technology.

Why?

“We were slower to get Internet access on cell phones, slower to get affordable data plans on cell phones and slower than Europeans to start using cell phones for accessing data,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst for Forrester Research.  But it’s also because the TSA has been very cautious, says Catherine Mayer, vice president of airport services at SITA, an information technology company serving the aviation industry. “The agency had additional security requirements it wanted airlines to meet before it would allow paperless boarding to be introduced here.”

Continental, the first airline to work up software to meet TSA’s authentication standards, kicked off the TSA’s pilot program for paperless boarding in December, 2007. Now the test program includes five U.S. airlines (Alaska, American, Continental, Delta and United), 71 domestic airports and Frankfurt Airport in Germany.

“Airlines are able to streamline the airport experience for passengers,” said Justin Taubman, the program manager for TSA’s mobile boarding pass program. “And the TSA is able to enhance the security of the boarding passes.”

Good to go?

While electronic boarding passes do save paper and time while heightening the TSA’s ability to detect fraudulent boarding passes, the pilot program is not glitch-free.

Some passengers encounter scanners with spent batteries or security-checkpoint staffers untrained or uninterested in the mobile pass pilot program.  When Justin Meyer of Kansas City showed up at 5 a.m. at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., security checkpoint armed with his electronic boarding pass, a TSA employee pressed him for paper. “I didn’t have it,” Meyer recalled, “so I had to wait about 10 minutes while they found the scanner and plugged it in.”

Other travelers have stored a paperless pass on a smartphone that has lost its charge. Or they’ve sailed through the TSA checkpoint paper-free, only to discover that an airline is using a gate without a scanner. Or they’ve discovered some airlines only deliver one paperless pass per smartphone — and that won’t work if you’re traveling with a family of four.

“Like any new technology or service, there needs to be a transition period when everyone is learning the way to proceed,” said Steve Lott of International Air Transport Association, an industry trade group.  And so for now, notes Shashank Nigam of the airline consulting firm, Simpliflying, “Paperless boarding may very well remain an early adopter thing until all airlines and airports fall in line.”

That may not be too far off. TSA’s Justin Taubman says the agency is currently working with vendors to develop equipment for a new boarding pass scanning system. “Once the new Credential Authenticating Boarding Pass Scanning System, or CAT/BPSS, is in place,” he said, “the pilot project will become an official TSA program.”

And we’ll have to learn a new acronym.

You can read my original column – Going paperless: Tech-savvy air travelers on board – and see some reader comments – on msnbc.com.