Few passenger complaints result from new security rules CHICAGO (AP) =97 Marni and Roger Burlingame, a retired couple from Sun City= =20 West, Ariz., have waited in a lot of long lines at airports. So when they=20 got to O'Hare International Airport on Sunday =97 the day the country's new= =20 airport baggage-screening system was put to its first big test =97 they were= =20 prepared for another one. They didn't get it. "A piece of cake," said Marni= =20 Burlingame, after a security worker wiped the couple's bags with a small=20 sheet of material designed to pick up traces of explosive chemicals for=20 analysis in a detector device. "It wasn't nearly as bad as we were led to=20 believe it was going to be," said her husband, after standing in line for=20 no more than 10 minutes. Air travelers across the country had similar=20 reactions to what was expected to be the heaviest travel day since Jan. 1,= =20 when a congressional order went into effect requiring that every checked=20 bag at more than 400 of the nation's commercial airports be screened for=20 explosives. The Transportation Security Administration, in charge of the=20 screening process, said it was braced for a busy day, which helped things=20 to run smoothly. "We were prepared for it. We have been getting prepared for it for several= =20 months," TSA director of communications Robert Johnson said. "The work all= =20 came together." The TSA hired 23,000 baggage screeners and 33,000 passenger screeners to=20 man the airports, Johnson said. "It's about the same as before," said=20 Richard Blackwell of Gainesville, Ga., who watched as screeners at Atlanta= =20 Hartsfield International Airport opened and inspected a sealed box of=20 stereo equipment before a flight to Florida. At the international terminal= =20 for Northwest Airlines at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New=20 York, passengers waited up to 30 minutes longer than usual while their bags= =20 were sent through giant screening machines and workers ripped open taped=20 boxes and rifled through their contents before closing them up again. At=20 Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada, the wait was about 35 minutes.= =20 "It adds a lot of stress," said Jeff Colyar of Glendale, Ariz., who was=20 flying home with his family after a ski vacation. "I have to fly a lot and= =20 I'm not looking forward to it." Most travelers didn't much mind the=20 intensified screening, developed since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11,=20 2001. "Everybody's life has changed since then," said Linda Johnson, 53, of= =20 La Habra, Ca., who was flying from Chicago to Los Angeles. Before the=20 attacks, only 5% of the roughly 2 million bags checked each day were=20 screened for bombs. The federal government put additional screeners into airports to implement= =20 the new order requiring all checked bags to be examined for explosives. "It= =20 may add a few minutes, but I think it's worth it," said Trina Frandsen, who= =20 checked a cardboard box and large suitcase at Kennedy for a flight home to= =20 Salt Lake City. "Maybe they could send me through that and I could get rid= =20 of that MRI appointment I have," Johnson joked as she watched her luggage=20 roll slowly into the bomb-detection machine at O'Hare. The machine checks=20 the density and chemical makeup of items inside each bag and alerts to=20 anything unusual. Jack Dunnigan, of Natick, Mass., watched his daughter check in for a flight= =20 from Boston's Logan Airport to Florida. "The more they (inspectors) do," he= =20 said, "the better I feel." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) : escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.hilofoodstores.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************