U.S. airline pilots will be exempted from physical checks at airport security checkpoints so federal screeners can better focus their attention on passengers, the Transportation Security Administration chief said.
Pilots starting next year will be able to move through checkpoints with proof of their identity, said John Pistole, who leads the security agency, in an interview today in Washington. He is in talks with flight attendants about similar exemptions, he said.
“This one seemed to jump out as a common-sense issue,” Pistole said. “Why don’t we trust pilots who are literally in charge of the aircraft?”
Pilots have sought faster screening for years and intensified those efforts in recent weeks after the agency said they would be subject to body scans and pat-down searches.
“Screening airline pilots for the possession of threat objects does not enhance security,” the Air Line Pilots Association, the world’s largest crew union with 53,000 members, said in a Nov. 12 statement. “Pilots have the safety of their passengers and aircraft in their hands on every flight.”
Pilots Object
Other unions representing 14,800 pilots at AMR Corp.’s American Airlines and US Airways Group Inc. urged members to avoid body scanners, which would force the workers to get pat- downs and potentially add to logjams at security lanes.
Pistole and executives at his agency have been meeting with pilot unions and airlines in recent weeks in anticipation of today’s announcement.
“We are actively exploring options,” Pistole told the Senate Homeland Security Committee Nov. 16. Given that a pilot is entrusted to operate an airplane and assume responsibility for passenger safety, “why do we have the screening for them?” he asked.
David Bates, president of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines’ 9,600 active pilots, told members in a Nov. 1 e-mail that body scanners “could be harmful to your health” by exposing them to radiation beyond what they receive from flying aircraft.
The union recommended that pilots use designated crew lines for screening where available, and otherwise decline scanner exposure and request an alternative in a private area.
The US Airline Pilots Association, which represents pilots at US Airways, gave similar advice to its members and urged pilots to make sure they have a witness to any pat-down search.
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