Airlines Face Friday Deadline to Screen Baggage
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Right now we want to talk about airport centers waiting on travelers, the airlines are facing a Friday deadline to screen all baggage for bombs. Today they got their guidance from the Bush Administration on how to go about that and our Kathleen Koch has more -- Kathleen.</s>KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, transportation secretary Norm Mineta came out and said that the administration will be using the full range of options in meeting that Friday deadline. He insists they will meet it, though. It could be a little bit messy. Where they can, they will using the explosive detection screening machines, these million dollar machines, which are the best option out there, but there simply are not enough of them, only 165 to screen the three and a half million bags a day the airlines handle. In other places they will be using bomb-sniffing dogs, they will be hand-searching some bags and they will be doing something called bag matching, making sure that no bag is checked into the belly of the plane if the passenger who owns it isn't also onboard the plane. Secretary Mineta said that he was trying to reassure the public that this is a good system that will do the job.</s>NORM MINETA, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: The system will be robust and redundant and we will be relentless in our search for improvements. It is better today than yesterday, and it will be better still tomorrow.</s>KOCH: Now obviously there are few problems with some of those options. Hand-checking every suitcase is very slow and tedious. Experts tell us that bomb-sniffing dogs are tried primarily to search airplanes, to search an open room, or an unattended bag for explosives, but not so search a huge room packed with hundreds of bags. They worry that the dogs would be become bored and inattentive. And then there is issue of bag matching, does nothing to deter a suicide terrorist. Airlines are telling us at this point they are not expecting major disruptions, but in the same breath in a press release on Monday they are asking for the public's continuing patience and understanding -- Leon.</s>HARRIS: Thank you, Kathleen, Kathleen Koch in Washington.