The terror threat comes as millions of Americans get ready for the busy holiday travel season, and they'll be met with new security and screening measures at the nation's airports. NBC's Tom Costello reports.
Enhanced security at the nation's airports is likely to include a show of force, including specially trained, heavily armed teams of officers, stepped-up scrutiny at checkpoints, more bomb-sniffing dogs, both in terminals and behind the scenes, checking cargo, more officers trained to spot suspicious behavior, and more undercover air marshals. Security experts believe passenger planes remain the prime target.
The effective way to attack a plane and the vulnerability we have as an aviation system is to the terrorist who brings a bomb on the body through the checkpoint. That is the number one priority to stop al-Qaeda.
After the so-called "Underwear Bomber" tried to bring down a Delta plane last Christmas, the TSA quickened the rollout of full-body scanners that can peer under a passenger's clothes, looking for weapons, now in 65 airports. While any passenger can opt out, he or she is then subject to a full physical pat-down.
Well aware what a carefully placed explosive can do to a plane, the TSA is constantly training its officers what to look for...
Two, one!
As we saw at a TSA training session in Maryland this past summer.
A very small amount can do an awful lot of damage to an aircraft in flight.
Every day two million passengers go through what the TSA calls a curb to cockpit approach to safety that has evolved since 9/11.
Layers are indispensable in security for aviation. The watch lists connecting that at the checkpoint, the technology, the alertness of the people, all of those things go into it.
The TSA announced this week that those pat-downs we mentioned will now be done with the full hands, no longer the back of the hands. The TSA believes the full hands are the best way to feel for any potential explosives. For TODAY, Tom Costello, NBC News, Washington.
