HOUSTON – We all know how it goes. Wait in line at TSA, step into the screening machine, and put our hands above our heads. It’s part of the security you go through before getting on an airplane.
But did you know your suitcase goes through an even more advanced screening process?
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The busiest travel season of the year is upon us. With an estimated 2.2 million people forecast to fly through Houston’s airports this Thanksgiving, how is TSA making sure everyone is safe?
It’s a tall task, but there’s no room for error.
“This is, I think, projected to be the busiest time of travel that we’ve had in quite some time,” said Darrin Descaro, who works with the TSA at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport. “We’ll be busy from 3:30 in the morning until we close about 10 p.m.”
This year has already been a record-breaking year for air travel. In fact, the top 10 busiest days ever have been in 2024.
Top 10 Busiest Travel Days
| Rank | Date | Passenger Volume |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | July 7, 2024 | 3,013,622 |
| 2 | June 23, 2024 | 2,996,496 |
| 3 | July 18, 2024 | 2,957,170 |
| 4 | May 24, 2024 | 2,951,859 |
| 5 | June 24, 2024 | 2,944,001 |
| 6 | June 28, 2024 | 2,938,292 |
| 7 | July 14, 2024 | 2,937,845 |
| 8 | October 20, 2024 | 2,933,132 |
| 9 | June 14, 2024 | 2,929,467 |
| 10 | July 25, 2024 | 2,924,478 |
This Thanksgiving holiday is expected to break even more records.
Think of it this way - The NFL has the Super Bowl. The TSA has Thanksgiving.
“TSA prepares for Thanksgiving all year long,” said TSA Spokesperson Patrica Mancha.
It’s the madness you’ve seen on the news and social media in the past. Long lines at TSA checkpoints, a wait to check your bag that wraps around the concourse and people full-on sprinting through the airport to make their flight to make it to Thanksgiving dinner on time.
While most travelers are worried about getting to their gate on time, they don’t realize the process their checked bag goes through to make it on the plane.
This includes an intense screening by the TSA in one of the most secure part of the airport.
“I think that most travelers just check their bag and forget it,” Mancha told KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding.
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When you drop that bag off at the ticket counter, it has quite the journey to make it to your plane.
The TSA gave KPRC 2 unrestricted access to see the process.
“We’re in the process where the bags are coming from, the ticket counter, and they’re going to come down to the baggage screening location, which would be our EDS machines, which are our explosive detection machines,” explained Descaro.
Each piece of checked luggage goes through those bomb-detecting devices. There are four of these machines at Hobby Airport.
Gage Goulding: “It seems like such a simple process from the gate to the plane. There’s a lot of technology that goes on.”
Darris Descaro: “Yes sir. As the technology improves the less hands-on we actually have to be and the less actual property we actually have to search.”
If a bag is clear, TSA officers never have to touch it and it continues on its journey to the airplane.
However, if a bag sets off an alarm, computers automatically divert the luggage to a secure room for an additional inspection.
TSA officers physically open the bag to look for the item that set off the alarm. They use the high-tech x-ray imaging from the detection systems to help them identify the issue.
“So, he going in strictly for that item. He cleared that item and there’s no other signs of tampering inside that bag, he’ll close that bag up,” Descaro explains. “And get it out of here within 60 seconds.”
Seems quick, right?
Well, it is.
It’s so quick that TSA at Hobby Airport hasn’t delayed a bag in nearly two years.
Gage Goulding: “Is that something that you’ll pride yourselves on?”
Darris Descaro: “Security is always first, efficiency is second.”
Patricia Mancha: “It’s all about the fact that when you get on the flight, you know that everything’s screened. That we took that job very seriously because our family members, our loved ones and our neighbors are also flying.”
It’s a big responsibility. And just like how traffic won’t be light and neither will your packing, it’s not something the TSA takes lightly.
