Did TSA turn off its scanners again to keep things moving during the holidays?

That’s the question asked by Tom Westerman, who flew from JFK to Atlanta on Dec. 23 and returned the 30th. Both were among the busiest travel days of the year.

“We saw the scanners at both airports and they were just turned off,” he says. “I didn’t see anyone else going through them on other lines. At JFK they had a rope across them to prevent people from going through. At ATL we were just directed to go around them.”

When I heard from Westerman, my initial thought was: “Oh no, does this mean I have to write another post about the TSA?”

The topic is so old that media outlets are starting to recycle stories.

Then I flew on Jan. 1, and wouldn’t you know it — the Rapiscan Secure 1000s “backscatter” X-Ray machines were powered down and roped off at our screening area in Orlando, too.

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