American Morning
Last-minute Thanksgiving deals could get you home for holidays
Already stressed out just thinking about Thanksgiving?
Forgot to book and think you’re out of luck?
Travel expert Genevieve Shaw Brown, senior editor at Travelocity, eases some of that travel tension this morning on American Morning. She tells you where to score last-minute deals, and how you can prepare now to take some of the stress out of next week’s shuffle.
TSA may change pilot screenings after body scan backlash
Passengers and pilots have already expressed discomfort with TSA’s revealing full-body scanners and too-close-for-comfort pat downs. Now, at least one is doing so publicly.
Over the weekend, a 31-year-old man refused a pat down at a San Diego airport. The cell phone video where he tells a TSA agent, don't "touch my junk," has gone viral.
Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano is speaking out, too. She writes a USA Today column defending pat downs and scanners and asking passengers for their patience.
This morning, TSA speaks to American Morning. TSA Administrator John Pistole, who meets with Napolitano today, tells AM’s John Roberts how TSA is changing its tone with passengers.
Pistole responds to passengers planning a "National Opt-Out Day" in protest of the scanners and Capt. Sully Sullenberger's recent comments that he doesn't understand the purpose of screening pilots.
Protesting airport body scanners, privacy group sues TSA
Flying the day before Thanksgiving?
Better be prepared to wait. Airport security lines may be getting even longer.
Outcries over the full-body security scanners continue with passengers, pilots and flight attendants choosing to opt out of the revealing scans for pat downs instead. One group calls for a day of protest against the scanners on Weds. Nov. 24, the busiest travel day of the year.
Another group says the Transportation Security Administration should remove the scanners from all airports. The group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a non-profit privacy advocacy group, is taking legal action against the TSA.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC, says the TSA should be required to conduct a public rule-making to evaluate the privacy, security and health risks caused by the body scanners. He talks with AM’s John Roberts today.
“The agency doesn’t have the legal authority to put these device in the airports," Rotenberg tells Roberts. "It was a very big step they took when they decided to make the body scanners the primary screening technique, and that’s what we’re objecting to."
In the full video, Rotenberg explains why freedom of religion and the Fourth Amendment should be examined in this case.
Pilot refuses full body scanners, questions security practicality
With all the responsibility they're already entrusted with, do full-body scanners make sense for commercial pilots?
The head of the pilot union at US Airways and the Allied Pilots Association president at American Airlines recommend that their pilots not go through the much-talked-about full body scanners, now in airports across the country.
They blame repeated doses of radiation.
Patrick Smith, commercial pilot and columnist of Salon’s AskthePilot.com, has refused body scans in the past and talks to Kiran Chetry on American Morning today. He says he agrees with the pilot groups refusing the scans, but not with their health-related reasoning.
Watch the interview to see why he thinks the body scanners are a plain waste of time for pilots.
Is your flight safe? : Passenger jets grounded over engine concerns
Multiple plane accidents made headlines last week. And, word today that Qantas, which had to emergency land a superjumbo jet last week after an engine blew, is grounding all A-380 jets.
Today, aviation analyst Peter Goelz, the former managing director of the NTSB, explains on American Morning what went wrong in each incident and what is concerning about the Qantas accident.
Goelz calls the engine blow on the Qantas jet "very disturbing." "Engines are designed to contain a failure such as this," he told AM's John Roberts.
Watch the full interview here.
NTSB Chairman: "Fatigue is a major issue"
CNN's John Roberts talks to NTSB Chairman about a two day forum the NTSB is holding in Washington, D.C., to examine the need for uniform safety standards between major and regional carriers.
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Welcome to the American Morning blog where you can get daily news updates from American Morning's reporters and producers. Join us for "the most news in the morning," weekdays from 6-9 a.m. ET, only on CNN.
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