Mixed signals for passengers at US airports

Los Angeles: By now, everyone knows the airport drill, its inconveniences offset by its clarity: take off your shoes, pop your laptop in a tray, have your driver's license at the ready. But in the three days since the attempted terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, the beleaguered traveler has once again been beset by a confusing and inconsistent set of rules.

Could you keep your blanket, as on Continental, or would it be snatched at the end of the flight, as it was on Lufthansa? Would security measures be visibly unchanged, as they were at the Houston airport, or would passengers be surprised by a careful swabbing of their hands and purses, like those in South Carolina? Would this week resemble Sunday, when JetBlue's entertainment system was shut down on international flights, or Monday, when the movies began showing on that airline once more?

"I just wish they'd have something, a list of rules, and stick to it," said Sherri Hemmer, who made a point of using the bathroom early on her Monday flight from Phoenix to Pittsburgh and was then annoyed to learn that a prohibition against moving around the cabin in the last hour of flight did not seem to apply to her flight.

The Transportation Security Administration has been deliberately vague - and even a little random - about the security measures it has imposed in the last few days, in part to make certain that potential attackers do not know what to expect. Many passengers welcome this.

"It's no problem," said Eleonora Gomarasca, who traveled to New York from Milan on Monday. "It's more control."

But that careful unpredictability has made life far more confusing and inconvenient for thousands of travelers. After Sept. 11, 2001, stark fears were met with complicity and acceptance, but now many people seem to feel that the government measures are more about reaction than protection.

"I think the security checks on the ground are the ones that make the most difference for safety," said Daniel Kim, 36, who arrived at Los Angeles International Airport three hours early for his flight to Frankfurt with his wife, Catherine, and their 20-month-old. "The whole one hour before thing, no getting up, what is that going to help, really? Will it get to a point when we can't get up at all during the flight, or have to raise our hands to go to the bathroom? Where does it end?"

While the new TSA restrictions seem largely confined to international travelers bound for the United States, confusion, delays and the ensuing angst seemed to spread across the nation in the wake of the thwarted attack on a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day.

The slowdown appeared to be particularly intense on flights coming from Canada. Dianne Duncan's trip to Los Angeles from Toronto, for one, involved a 10-hour security wait, four lost bags, a missed flight and rerouting, a thorough search of her belongings, and a full-body pat-down of her and her 5-year-old daughter.

"It was extremely strict," said Duncan, who arrived at the Toronto airport at 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning and did not reach the screening area until nearly seven hours later.

"Take note: there was no toilet, no water and no food for purchase," she said. "There was one man to screen the men, and one woman to screen the women. There was a full pat-down. It was as if they were specifically searching for something."

Once on board, the passengers were not allowed to have anything under the seat in front of them, nor could they get up for the last hour and a half of the flight. After missing a flight to Newark, Duncan was rerouted through Houston, where she was offered a hotel; she said she was afraid to leave the secure area.

"My family lives in Toronto, so I can't stop going there," she said. "But I guess from now on if I travel, I can't expect to be at work the next day."

While certain restrictions, like the prohibition against using the bathroom during the last hour of flight, seemed limited to international flights, the security checks were far from uniform within American borders.

In Springfield, Mo., The Rev. Moses Berry, 59, an Eastern Orthodox priest, was carefully patted down between his legs, across his chest and under his black flowing robes. But in Philadelphia, Current D'Ignazil, 20, a college sophomore bound for Pittsburgh, was barely acknowledged by security personnel.

On flights from Milan to New York, people could move freely about the cabin. But on a plane from Acapulco to Chicago, passengers had to stay seated the last hour, even though they were outnumbered by crew members.

"The steward said that they didn't think it would be necessary because there were only three of us," said Donald Martin, 72, who was traveling with his wife, Judy. "But the captain insisted because it was a TSA rule."

At times, security on the ground was easy, but more stringent in the air. Amanda Cain, 41, flew on China Eastern from Beijing to Los Angeles with her 5-year-old daughter, Emily. The security line was a relative breeze. "They let me through easily, I think because they saw I had a small child with me," Cain said. "I appreciated that."

But on the plane, restricted movement and confiscated comforts took a toll.

"The last hour and a half, they said we can't move at all," Cain said. "That was very hard for her. The flight attendant came by and took the pillow from her head. I didn't like that. Why did they have to wake her up? It would be better for her to sleep."

Then Emily threw up, never any parent's dream, but all the more unpleasant when the bathroom cannot be visited.