studentsineurope

New TSA rules? Are they for real?

Which items are prohibited today?

In the wake of the Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack by a man on board a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, there are plenty of rumors flying around about the possible beefing up of TSA security rules on airplanes, especially international flights bound for the U.S. In fact, the entire blogosphere and Twitterverse has completely erupted in what I could only term ‘hysteria’ over the possibility of these new rules.

But, what exactly are these new rules and are they even for real?

This all started when one particular Twitter user, charleneli, tweeted about her experiences flying between Canada and the United States on December 26, the day after the incident occurred. From there, several bloggers (such as Henry Blodget, Gizmodo, and TechCrunch - the worst of the three)  jumped on the bandwagon and, before long, I was receiving Facebook status updates from close friends about the matter.

There are a few rumors going around at this point:

• Flights are being canceled because of new TSA security measures
• No one is allowed to move, get into their bags, go to the bathroom or use electronics during the last hour of a flight
• Electronics are banned on international flights

As a regular traveler, I am obviously disturbed by the idea of any of these, particularly that last one. Let’s face it, a 7 hour flight from New York to Paris would be hell without my laptop and iPod! So, I did a little digging about the issue on TSA’s website. Despite what a lot of folks have said (that TSA hasn’t made a statement), they have in fact made a very specific statement, as a large banner on the homepage directs passengers to information in a document titled: “TSA Guidance for Passengers on Heightened Security Measures in Place Following Dec. 25 Incident”. Seems pretty specific to me, doesn’t it?

So, here’s the deal, straight out of the TSA’s mouth:

• Heightened security for international flights bound for the U.S., including increased gate screening, pat downs, and bag searches.
• Passengers will be asked to follow flight crew instructions, such as stowing personal items, turning off electronic equipment and remaining seated during certain portions of the flight.

That’s it! That’s it? What is all the fuss about then? It’s not as if, until yesterday, airport security was a carnival ride. Going through airport security, and flying in general, pretty much sucks. It is humiliating, time consuming, annoying and maddening. But that’s already what you expect when you fly, so what’s the big deal? One more gate search on a long line of already annoying gate searches – it’s just the way flying is nowadays.

And about that pesky “stay seated for the last hour of the flight” rumor. Okay, let’s look at this rationally. Before the Christmas Day worst-terrorist-ever pants bomber showed up and trying to take down a Northwest flight, we were asked to sit down, turn off our iPods and stay there at least 30 minutes before the flight landed. We were also, of course, asked to stay in our seats and keep the laptops off for half an hour at the beginning of the flight. Those are just the basic, “don’t interfere with important radio signals” rules on every. single. flight. So, even if they decide to extend it by an extra half hour for some flights (which, according to the TSA, isn’t even happening), what is the great tragedy here?

Okay, I’ll jump off my soapbox for now. I would just like to leave you with one last thought. A man gets on a plane and tries to blow himself and his fellow passengers out of the sky on Christmas Day, and all we can do is complain about extra security measures?