The United Steelworkers (USW) today urged the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Transportation Security to expand advanced Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening programs used by pilots to airline flight deck and cabin crew members.

In testimony submitted for today’s subcommittee hearing, “Access Control Point Breaches at Our Nation’s Airports: Anomalies or Systemic Failures?” USW International Vice President At-Large Carol Landry said that expanding these advanced screening programs to airline flight deck and cabin crew members would grant them expedited access through screening checkpoints and make everyone safer.

“The problem is that the current limited versions of risk-based surveillance screening systems like CrewPASS and Known Crew Member are available only to pilots and limited to a few locations,” Landry said. “Excluding flight attendants from the risk-based surveillance program creates a system where TSA agents must spend valuable screening time inspecting workers who are trained to be the last line of defense in the aircraft cabin ... more