TSA's New Scanners

The TSA's New Scanners Could Mean the End of Removing Your Laptop and Liquids

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CAILEY RIZZO 

The TSA hates that you have to take out your laptop and liquids, too.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is unveiling a new x-ray technology that could one day allow passengers “to leave laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags,” according to a statement.


Fifteen airports around the country will soon implement new 3D computed tomography (CT) scanners at security checkpoints. The new machines allow TSA officers to visually inspect and rotate 3D images of each bag. If a threat is found in the image, a TSA officer will remove the bag and search for the item. However the administration believes the new technology will result in fewer necessary physical bag inspections.

The TSA began testing the new machines at Phoenix Sky Harbor and Boston’s Logan International airports in 2017, and recently installed a third machine at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The next airports to receive the technology are: Baltimore-Washington, Chicago O’Hare, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, Houston Hobby, Indianapolis, Los Angeles International, McCarran in Las Vegas, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Diego, St. Louis Lambert, and Washington–Dulles.

Other airports will receive the machines in the coming months.

By the end of the year, 40 new machines are expected at airports around the country. The TSA expects to have more than 145 operational machines in airports by the end of 2019.