Federal authorities are tacitly acknowledging that, despite their best efforts, it's impossible to keep domestic aircraft safe from all evildoers. That's because if a pilot wants to crash a plane, the pilot can crash a plane.

With that in mind, the Transportation Security Administration began a program Tuesday allowing pilots to skirt the security-screening process. The TSA has deployed approximately 500 body scanners to airports nationwide in a bid to prevent terrorists from boarding domestic flights, but pilots don't have to go through the controversial nude body scanners or other forms of screening. They don't have to be patted down or go through metal detectors. Their carry-on bags are not searched.

Pilots at O'Hare International Airport are now allowed to bypass the screening process altogether and instead show authorities their credentials in a program called Known Crewmember. The pilot program (pun intended) is expected to roll out soon to a half dozen other airports in Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Lee Moak, the president of the Airline Pilots Association International, said the plan would speed up screening for passengers.

"This enhanced screening process recognizes the extensive background checks pilots receive as part of their employment and, importantly, airline pilots' critical role and responsibility in securing their aircraft each and every time they fly," he said in a statement.

The move came a month after the TSA announced that one type of body scanner deployed in as many as 78 airports nationwide will be revamped to no longer display an image of travelers' naked bodies, bowing to months of criticism over the privacy implications of the technology. The announcement followed a federal appeals court decision a week earlier upholding the government's right to use the advanced imaging-technology scanners.

And later this year, the TSA intends to reduce screening for so-called "trusted travelers" or "elite-level" frequent fliers of American Airlines and Delta Airlines. Those passengers may not have to remove their shoes or take their computers out of their cases during the screening process.

The government intends to roll out that project beyond Atlanta, Detroit, Miami and Dallas. There are no announced plans to reduce screening for rank-and-file fliers. But, as noted on our sister blog Danger Room, TSA chief John Pistole is talking about a smarter approach to airport screening.

At last month's Aspen Security Forum, Pistole announced that the government should "apply some more common sense" to the screening process and "recognize that the vast majority of people traveling every day are not terrorists."

Photo: The Rocketeer/Flickr

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