Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives voted to restrict TSA from conducting what have become known as “virtual strip-searches.”  House Restricts “Strip-Search Machines” [WashingtonWatch.com].  The bill provides, among other things, that:

Whole-body imaging technology may not be used as the sole or primary method of screening a passenger under this section. Whole-body imaging technology may not be used to screen a passenger under this section unless another method of screening, such as metal detection, demonstrates cause for preventing such passenger from boarding an aircraft.

Virtual Strip Search "Privacy Filter"

Although promoted as less intrusive than x-rays, explosive sniffers and the like, this new technology presents a significant threat to personal privacy.  As the sponsor (Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah) said, “Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked to secure an airplane.”  My colleague Chris Calabrese of the ACLU makes it graphically clear:

these machines produce strikingly graphic images of passengers’ bodies when they are utilized as part of the airport screening process. Those images reveal not just graphic images of “naughty parts,” but also intimate medical details like colostomy bags.

Privacy advocacy groups are, for obvious reasons, alarmed.  It is very much like the “Tunnel of Truth” hypothesized in the 1990 sci-fi film Total Recall. That was scary indeed! Not unsurprisingly, on May 31, a coalition of advocacy groups including the ACLU, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Gun Owners of America, and the Consumer Federation of America sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano asking her to “suspend the program until the privacy and security risks are fully evaluated.”

That will never happen. It its zeal to “protect” Americans traveling by air, TSA has turned the check-in experience into the U.S. equivalent of the Star Chamber, where ordinary citizens are presumed to be dangerous just by, for instance, wearing shoes — now routinely x-rayed separately at every U.S. airport — or putting liquids into carry-on luggage.  The millimeter wave and related strip-search technologies ratchet this up yet another level.  Use of a “privacy screen” to cover intimate areas is hardly an answer.

Tunnel of Truth (1990)

In my view, TSA is out of control.  Yes, there were security lapses leading to 9/11, but they did not arise from business or vacation travelers and, with a bit more diligence (like following up on middle eastern males taking flying lessons but rejecting landing practice) the government could target those likeliest to have real terrorist connections.  Just as TSA’s “no fly list” was overreaching, so is virtual body searching.  We do not need this and we do not need TSA.  I say abolish the agency, something with which Jim Harper of the Cato Institute, the premiere libertarian think tank, agrees.

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Just the thought of being in the icy waters of the Hudson River in the winter is enough to make one’s skin crawl. US Airways Jet Crashes Into Hudson River off New York City [ABC News]. But looking at photos and video of today’s aircraft floating in the river is scary, very scary indeed.

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Chris Pummer writes in MarketWatch that “U.S. consumers complain about the airline industry like we do Big Oil when it’s our craving for the absolute lowest prices that’s crippled the industry.” Addiction to Cheap Airfares is Causing Our Own Travel Ruin.

Sure, but he’s only half right. While it’s certainly true that modern airlines are all morphing into People’s Express — and what a nightmare that was — the CEOs still sell on price alone. Less than a decade ago, business fares were 5 to 10 times as high as leisure fares, but now folks can book a cost-to-coast business trip for less than $500 at peak hours. That’s completely absurd and breaks the basic rules of business 101.

But one thing is certain, if the airline industry can screw anything up, they will. And that’s not limited to America; it’s happening in Europe too. (For an academic view, see this SSRN paper, which indicates that firms in financial difficulty are more likely to start price wars. Duh! Just look at Ryanair this week in Britain.) A better analysis blames both consumers and the airlines for the air travel mess we’re in today, like Brian Sullivan’s recent post The Baffling Airline Business: Both Sides to Blame? [Brian Sullivan Blog].

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Splashed over the business and tech media today is the story of Delta Airlines announcing it will begin offering WiFi on cross-country flights in a few months.  But why is this news?  The technology for in-flight voice and data communications has been around for two decades, Virgin and others offer LiveTV to passengers, GTE/Verizon’s Airfone service floundered and was eventually sold due to lack of demand, while Qantas and others are already rolling out in-flight WiFi.  Yes, it would be excellent to pay for Internet access rather than pillows, but wireless Web surfing is not going to save the airline industry.

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We all know that US airlines are hard-pressed for cash in light of the escalation in oil prices this year.  And maybe — but just maybe — most travelers can put up with being charged for checking not just additional bags, but also their first and only suitcase.  But $7 for a blanket and pillow and fees for water?  It is certainly an odd industry where the market innovators, like Jet Blue, are best known for devising clever new ways to reduce customer service.  In most other markets, the leading firms look for ways to avoid commoditizing their product and achieve scale economies. Perhaps it is too much to expect for an industry where consolidation has resulted mainly in money losing price wars.  If the airlines are determined to further alienate their customers, this is the way to go. I’m just glad that, as a man, I don’t get cold on airplanes!!

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One of the best scenes in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s film Total Recall is when he goes through a security checkpoint that has invisible, futuristic x-ray scanners which can see weapons and other things beneath one’s clothing. That movie dates from 1990, but now it turns out that the technology is real. New Body Scans at Airport Security See Through Clothes [Switched.com]. The concept is called millimeter wave scanning and it is described by TSA as producing images that “are friendly enough to post in a preschool. Heck, it could even make the cover of Reader’s Digest and not offend anybody.” I think I like the movie version better anyway!

If things have gone wrong, I’m talking to myself, and you’ve probably got a wet towel wrapped around your head. So whatever your name is, get ready for a big surprise: YOU are not YOU, You are ME.

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Not really, but I am flying to Seattle on Alaska Airlines, rated dead last in on-time arrivals. Nice people, although we are indeed more than an hour late.

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They spent two years laboriously reconstructing a copy of the Wright Brothers’ first powered airplane, but today — the 100th anniversary of that first flight — our modern 21st century engineers couldn’t get off the ground and flopped in the mud at rain-soaked Kitty Hawk (now Kill Devil Hills), North Carolina [Reuters].

Shows how ingenious Oriville and Wilbur really were. The world has changed a lot as a result of their invention, mostly for the good, but it’s still a place where 90% hard work isn’t always enough to compensate for the lack of 10% inspiration. Apologies to Thomas Edison for butchering his aphorism.

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The “War on Terror” has already disrupted life for years, but now MSNBC reports that Al Qaeda is fashioning pillows and stuffed animals into explosives to use on airplanes. So now teenagers bringing pillows and toddlers clutching teddy bears are all going to have the stuffing beat out of them — or at least their plush carry-ons — literally by TSA when boarding airlines. This stuff is just out of control.

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EPIC has released documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showing that the government has established a “No Fly List” of suspected terrorists.

Threat Levels

Problem is, TSA doesn’t compile very accurate information, so as BusinessWeek Online reports, once you’re on the list it’s impossible to get off. BusinessWeek – The System That Doesn’t Safeguard Travel.

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