All Air Freight on Commercial Airlines to Be Screened For Explosives by August 2010

On almost every commercial airline flight, the cargoflown on passenger planes arrives pre-packaged on
hold contained more than just your luggage and a petpallets or in large cargo bins. Federal law though
carrier or two. Airlines make substantial income byrequires every box (even those contained within the
filling their passenger flight holds with a wide varietypallets and bins) to be individually screened by
of cargo.humans, X-ray machines, explosive-detection
About 10 million pounds of cargo are shipped onequipment or trained dogs.
passenger planes in the U.S. every day. While theThe law does not require that the freight be
luggage has all been screened for explosives forscreened at airports, like luggage, but allows TSA to
years, almost none of the cargo went throughcertify private companies to screen cargo at any
security until recently. By August 3, 2010, all thepoint in the shipping process, providing secure
freight that is shipped aboard commercial airlines mustdeliveries to airlines.
be screened for bombs.Even if the goods are inspected prior to packaging
Before then though, a system of private cargoon pallets or in bins, it seems that everyone handling
screeners must be established. Federal officials andthe product from there would need to have TSA
freight industry leaders are worried that tons ofcertification, to assure a secure chain of custody.
cargo will be grounded because of a lack of certifiedThe new inspection mandate does not apply to
screeners.100% cargo planes, such as those flown by FedEx
The TSA's Certified Cargo Screening Program doesand UPS. Carriers with their own cargo planes could
not currently have enough certified screeners tocertainly see an uptick in business next year while the
meet demand. The problem is that most freightindustry and TSA sorts out the screener issues.