Atlantic City International Airport, in Egg Harbor Township, receives at least one flight a day from Toronto, Canada.
By DAN GOOD, Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, January 6, 2010
People flying from Canada to Atlantic City International Airport won’t be able to carry bags with them onto the plane.
And soon to follow: full-body scans.
Canadian Air Transport Security Authority imposed the temporary carry-on measure after a failed Dec. 25 terrorist attack aboard a plain from Amsterdam to Detroit; it includes all flights leaving Canada en route to the United States. The carry-on ban will affect passengers on West Jet flights, which fly from Toronto to Atlantic City each day.
The Canadian carry-on policy is temporary and does not include personal items such as medical devices, cameras, coats, infant care items, laptop computers, walkers, crutches and canes and musical instruments. Canadian officials said Tuesday that full-body scanners will be introduced in the country’s airports by spring, and the scanners will be used for passengers boarding U.S.-bound flights.
West Jet public relations manager Robert Palmer said, “As for whether the (safety) measures are effective, well, that’s really not a question for the airlines but rather, for the TSA.”
TSA officials denied a request to speak to Atlantic City federal security director Ron Facciponti, instead referring to a statement on TSA’s Web site.
According to the statement, “The new directive includes long-term, sustainable security measures developed in consultation with law enforcement officials and our domestic and international partners.”
President Barack Obama spoke about airline safety Tuesday, calling the incident “a screw-up that could have been disastrous.”
Since the attack, the United States government has added dozens of names to its lists of suspected terrorists and those barred from flights bound for the U.S.
In addition, the United States Transportation Security Administration directed airlines to give full-body, pat-down searches to U.S.-bound travelers from Yemen, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and 11 other countries.
On Sunday, a malfunctioning surveillance system caused a shutdown of Newark Liberty International Airport. The faulty camera made it impossible for TSA personnel to check an image of a man seen walking in through an exit door Sunday evening until it could view tapes from a nearby Continental Airlines surveillance camera.
The incident shut down an entire terminal at the airport and stopped flights for six hours.
South Jersey Transportation Authority spokesperson Sharon Gordon said it would be difficult for a similar incident to happen at Atlantic City International Airport, since the airport is made up of a series of pods.
“You can only access the pods from a sterile area — meaning you can only exit, you can’t enter, and if you tried to get back into a holding area, you would be forced to go back through screening,” Gordon said. “That would not have happened at our airport.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.