Bangor airport moves site of bag screenings farther from view

BANGOR – Lulled into a sense of security by their eight-day stay in Maine, Herb and Barbara Bartelman of Almond, Wis., left their luggage at the checkout counter Thursday at Bangor International Airport without their usual watchful eye on the baggage screeners.

They have had problems at other airports, including in San Diego, where federal screeners mishandled some valuables they packed, said retired schoolteacher Herb Bartelman, 66.

Nothing was stolen, but they now tend to be more wary. Here in Maine, they felt “extremely safe,” he said.

After dropping off their bags, the couple headed upstairs to the gate area without waiting to see their bags screened. The changes that came about last month are intended to ease congestion and improve the check-in process.

Downstairs, changes instituted recently in how some luggage is handled by baggage screeners were under way.

Behind the airline ticket counters but still in view, federal Transportation Security Administration baggage screeners checked the couple’s three bags. The process included passing a piece of fabric around the outside, looking for any trace of explosives. For one bag, it meant opening it up and swabbing around the inside edge.

The baggage screening process isn’t new, but where it’s being done in sections of the Bangor airport is. In half of the airport’s first floor, the TSA screening has been moved to behind the ticket counters of Delta Comair, Northwest Airlink and the new Continental service that started just this week.

Screening once done directly in front of passengers now is done, in most cases, 8 to 10 feet away behind the counter.

A little disconcerted and expressing some surprise that one of their suitcases was opened, Bartelman still took it in stride.

“All in all, I suppose we can handle it,” he said as he waited for his flight.

Made at the request of one of the airlines to help make room for a computerized check-in kiosk, the renovations expand the space for passengers especially during peak times when passengers had lined up and blocked a nearby entryway and offices, BIA Director Rebecca Hupp said recently. It also reduces some of the time needed in handling the bags, eliminating the need for passengers to go back and forth between the ticket counter and TSA screeners.

“It just streamlines the process,” Hupp said.

Hundreds of thousands of bags are screened each year, and airport officials are considering doing the same thing on the other half of the first floor where the U.S. Airlines and American Eagle airline counters are. Space constraints there might prohibit that, Hupp said.

Passengers in recent days generally seemed unconcerned about the change; few stayed to watch their luggage being screened. Some saw it as an improvement, a one-stop way of checking bags.

“I thought this was a good surprise,” said Pam Abrahamson, 58, of Brooksville, who was with her husband, Allen Abrahamson, 61. They were headed to Wisconsin to see the last of their three children graduate from college.

They remembered coming to the airport at peak times when the lines were long and the wait was longer. So the idea of a quicker process was a welcome one.

A few still clung to the idea of having to watch the screening themselves.

Constance Hanscom, 88, of Bangor was wary of the process. She came to see off her son Roger Hanscom, 61, as he left Thursday morning to return home to California. They disagreed as to whether they should watch the screeners.

In the past, she said, she found some of her items broken and a note in her suitcase indicating that the TSA had searched the bag.

Her son was less concerned. He said he packs all of his valuables in his carry-on bag and said if the TSA wants to search his clothing, that is OK with him. He is more concerned about what could get on board, such as explosives, if the TSA screeners weren’t doing their checks.

“I’d rather they search people’s luggage and find anything, because I have to get on the plane with it,” he said.

And that means a lot of bags to check.

From June 1, 2004, to May 31, 2005, the TSA checked 232,720 bags at the Bangor airport, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said recently. They check using “explosive trace detection” equipment, and that sometimes requires searching the bag, Davis said. She could not say how frequently bags are searched. In some airports, the screening is done completely out of view, Davis said.

As for possible theft or damage of items in the bags, Davis said no TSA employee at BIA has been accused of theft, and there are procedures in place for dealing with lost or damaged items. She said that there are TSA officials at the airports who handle such complaints, and complaint forms are available there and online at www.tsa.gov.

Among the travel tips the TSA provides are recommendations that valuables be stored in the carry-on bags and that checked baggage should not be overfilled. She said she has seen a suitcase so overpacked that several screeners were needed just to close it.

Overall, Hupp said, she thinks the changes are ones that will be welcomed by passengers.

“We feel it will provide a convenience for passengers,” she said.