Airline Pilot Central Forums - TSA Urgent Security Directive

From NYT on-line:

Restrictions Rise After Terrorism Attempt (Glad GW's New Deal TSA was on the ball to prevent this :mad:)

By LIZ ROBBINS and MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: December 26, 2009

Transportation authorities began imposing tighter security measures at airports on Saturday and ordered new restrictions governing the activities of passengers during flights as investigators conducted searches to learn more about the Nigerian engineering student accused of igniting an incendiary device aboard a Northwest Airlines jet as it landed in Detroit.

The White House declared the incident “an attempted act of terrorism.” The plane, an Airbus A330 wide-body jet with 278 passengers coming from Amsterdam, landed safely around noon on Christmas Day after passengers helped subdue the suspect.

According to a statement posted Saturday morning on Air Canada’s Web site, the Transportation Security Administration will severely limit the behavior of both passengers and crew during flights in United States airspace — restricting movement in the final hour of flight.

Late Saturday morning, the T.S.A. had not yet included this new information on its own Web site.

“Among other things,” the statement in Air Canada’s Web site read, “during the final hour of flight customers must remain seated, will not be allowed to access carry-on baggage, or have personal belongings or other items on their laps.”

The suspect, according to officials, tried to light his explosives while the plane was descending into Detroit on Friday.

Earlier in the day, British Airways had announced on its Web site that passengers flying from London to the United States would be allowed to carry only one item onto a plane.

Law enforcement officials from around the world Saturday were investigating the background of the suspect, identified as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab. In Nigeria, a prominent banker told the Asssociated Pres that he was meeting with security officials there because he feared his son was the suspect. Alhaji Umaru Mutallab told The A.P. Press said his son was a one-time university student in London who had left Britain to travel abroad. He said his son hadn’t lived in London “for some time” but he wasn’t sure exactly where he went to.

“I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that,” the elder Mutallab said. He said he would provide more details later Saturday as he learned more from authorities.

At New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport early Saturday morning, there did not immediately appear to be an increased number of security officers or dogs, some passengers and private security officials said.

“It’s standard operation until we hear something from Washington,” said one T.S.A. officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of searches.

Another officer, working for the private International Airline Terminal company, spoke from his post in Terminal 4. “We’re very, very alert today, we’ve already been given a briefing at 6:30 a.m. to be extra alert, extra vigilant this morning,” he said, also declining to give his name. “Anything unusual we were to report to our bosses immediately.”

At that point the security officer noticed a red bag on a garbage can and called in his concern.

On Saturday, U.S. officials were still investigating the explosives the suspect had carried onto the aircraft. A senior administration official said that the government did not yet know whether the man had had the capacity to take down the plane.

The device, described by officials as a mixture of powder and liquid, failed to fully detonate. Passengers on the plane described a series of pops that sounded like firecrackers.

Federal officials said the man wanted to bring the plane down.

A second Department of Homeland Security official said that the T.S.A. used layers of security measures at the nation’s airports and that it would be tightening them as a result of the incident in Detroit.

These measures — some visible to passengers, some not — include bomb-sniffing dog teams, carry-on luggage and passenger screening measures, and plainclothes behavioral-detection specialists inside airport terminals. The official said there were no immediate plans to elevate the nation’s threat level, which has been at orange since 2006.

Questions have been raised for years about aviation security in Nigeria. Last month, however, the T.S.A. said that standards at the Lagos airport met international criteria for security.

Friday’s incident brought to mind Richard C. Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, who attempted to blow up an American Airlines flight between Paris and Miami in December 2001 by igniting explosives in his shoes. Mr. Reid was subdued by a flight attendant and passengers and the plane landed safely in Boston. Mr. Reid later pleaded guilty to three terrorism-related counts and was sentenced to life in prison. Since then, airline passengers have had to remove their shoes before passing through security checkpoints in American airports.

In August 2006, British authorities uncovered a plot to blow up planes bound for the United States using explosives that would be mixed with liquids on board. Eight men were arrested, and three were convicted in the case this fall. British authorities estimated that as many as 2,000 airplane passengers might have been killed had the plotters been successful. The plot led security officials to limit the amount of liquids and gels that passengers can bring on board in their carry-on baggage.