Travelers on international flights headed to the U.S. are required to have their mobile phones and other electronic gadgets powered on for additional inspection before they go aboard their flights, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced on Sunday.
Otherwise, electronic devices that are drained or out of power won’t be allowed inside the plane, it added. The owners of the devices won’t be allowed to board their planes as well and may go through further screening.
“As the traveling public knows, all electronic devices are screened by security officers. During the security examination, officers may also ask that owners power up some devices, including cell phones. Powerless devices will not be permitted onboard the aircraft. The traveler may also undergo additional screening,” TSA said in a statement.
Recall that officials of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) disclosed last week that airport security would tighten, specifically on flights that are headed to U.S. soil, but made no further mention of the particulars of the new security procedure.
“DHS continually assesses the global threat environment and reevaluates the measures we take to promote aviation security. As part of this ongoing process, I have directed TSA to implement enhanced security measures in the coming days at certain overseas airports with direct flights to the United States,” DHS secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement.
What’s clear, however, is that waiting time for passengers would be lengthened because of the additional inspection to assure aviation security.
Johnson said the agency will likewise share such information with its foreign allies and will consult the aviation industry. He added that such communications are relevant in the agency’s commitment to provide situational awareness with their security partners and to protect the travelling public.
The additional inspection is said to be in part of government security's latest strategy to protect the country against new types of terror threats or attacks, since U.S. intelligence officials have been looking into the possibility that Al-Qaeda’s new efforts for terrorism would involve the production of bombs that would somehow be undetected by airport security.
The attention of the new rigid airport procedure focuses on explosives concealed as electronic gadgets. Security expert and professor at Georgetown University, Bruce Hoffman, told The Wall Street Journal that the new security procedure prior to boarding planes aims to avert possible attacks that make use of non-metallic explosives through electronic gadgets as covering that could be undetected in ordinary airport screening procedures.
Research said the recent move by U.S. security officials is apparently a response to new intelligence reports indicating how Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in Syria have been working with Al-Qaeda members in Arabian Peninsula in its plan to take down a commercial plane going to Europe or U.S., which was first reported by ABC News.
An unidentified person familiar with the new order told The Wall Street Journal that the recent directive for additional security in airports spans over a dozen of airports in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
