Comm Failure At DFW; Security SNAFU In Phoenix; Weather On East Coast

If you're planning to head over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house this holiday season, you may just be better off prepping the horse-drawn sleigh (or avgas-fueled Cessna) instead of traveling on the airlines.

As the Thanksgiving holiday season kicked off this weekend in the United States, a botched security scan of a lone piece of luggage conspired to delay almost 2,000 travelers in Phoenix Saturday evening.

The Arizona Republic reports screeners at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport failed to properly screen one bag... forcing the delay of 30 US Airways flights, for up to three hours.

Transportation Security Administration officials -- acting out of what PHX spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez charitably called "an abundance of caution" -- opted to rescreen all checked baggage in Terminal 4.

"It wasn't screened to their satisfaction," Rodriguez said. The delay left outgoing flights stuck at the gate... which, of course, also blocked arriving flights slotted to use those gates.

TSA spokeswoman Carrie Harmon said PHX recently changed over to an in-line scanning system, similar to systems used in nearly 20 other airports throughout the US. The systems are intended to streamline the screening process... but, well, you know the rest.

"The systems are highly reliable and efficient. It doesn't mean things can't go wrong, but if they do we move quickly to correct the problem," Harmon said.

Flights had resumed a normal schedule by Monday, according to Phoenix airport officials... which isn't something their counterparts at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport could claim.

NBC-5 reports a radio communications failure between the East and West control towers at D/FW disrupted operations at the busy airport in the heart of the morning rush hour.

A ground stop was called at around 0700 CST, delaying takeoffs throughout the airport. Communications were restored to the East tower about 20 minutes later; repairing systems in West tower took longer.

Flight delays of about 30 minutes to an hour are expected while things return to normal, said D/FW spokesman Ken Capps.

The weather isn't helping matters, either. Fog in Atlanta, GA and throughout Southern California delayed flights in those areas, while wet weather and wind are to blame for delays along the East Coast.

FMI: www.tsa.gov, www.dfwairport.com, www.phoenix.gov/aviation