Scoop! Blogger Chris Elliot at www.elliott.org Obtains TSA Security Document

For the last 24 hours, those of us who write about travel have been mightily confused by what the TSA has asked airlines to do in the wake of the attempt on Christmas Day to blow up a Delta flight from Amsterdam as it approached a landing in Detroit.

About a half hour ago, my radio show colleague, Christopher Elliott, got a hold of the actual TSA document that clarifies quite a few points. 

First of all, it's only directed at INCOMING international flights.  All passengers are supposed to be patted down before boarding a flight to the US in addition to the usual security screening.

Passengers are not to leave their seats the last hour of the flight.

Passengers are not to have anything in their laps--computers, magazines, blankets, or pillows--for that last hour of a flight.  In short, flight attendants want to be able to see hands, just like cops on TV shows do when they bust into the bad guys' hideouts.

These rules are only in force through Dec. 30th, at the moment.

As Chris said a few minutes ago on my Los Angeles radio show, it's not entirely clear that had these rules had been in effect earlier that they would have thwarted the Christmas Day bomber, though he would have had to visit the lavatory a lot earlier than he did.  But a bomb is a bomb, and if it had exploded over the Atlantic the result would have been just as disastrous as if it had exploded during the approach to Detroit.  Maybe the news headlines would have been bigger in the latter case.

At any rate, check out Chris' blog to see the government's exact wording.