Unable to reach agreement with airlines on responsibility, agency decides to pay anyway

The Transportation Security Administration has announced that it will pay 15,000 airline passengers who filed claims of lost, stolen or damaged possessions after their bags were screened by TSA employees. The payments will average about $110, according to the Associated Press report.

Because the TSA began screening all bags in 2002, this situation created a new chain of custody for passenger bags -- from the airline, to the TSA and back to the airline. Passengers who claimed losses or damage to their possessions were put in limbo while the agency and the airlines argued over who was responsible for the losses. According to TSA spokesperson Mark Hatfield, the agency proposed an agreement to solve the issue, but the airlines did not agree.

"We still believe there's a way to divide this responsibility with the airlines, but until that agreement is met passengers deserve satisfaction on their claims so we will move unilaterally to settle their claims," Hatfield said. "It's time to get through the backlog."

Jack Evans, spokesperson for the Air Transport Association, said that his organization is not pleased with the lack of an agreement. "At this point it looks like we can only urge the government to settle these claims as quickly and expeditiously as possible with our customers," Evans said.

Over the last 22 months, the TSA has paid out on some 1,800 claims. This new batch of payments will constitute settlements for some 15,000 passengers. However, a total of 18,000 claims had been filed. According to Hatfield, 38 percent of the claimns will be fully paid, 32 percent will get half of the reported loss and some 12 percent will receive less than half their claim. Some 3,000 passengers will not receive a dime because the items reported missing were prohibited or they were not the owners of the items.

Air Travelers Association president David Stempler commented that he's received a flood of complaints about missing or damaged bags or property. Many of the people who suffered losses did no file claims because no progress was being made in getting paid for their losses. "A lot of people are just throwing up their hands," he said. "We had warned them about this problem when they started inspecting bags outside of the view of passengers. We told them to be prepared but they weren't."

ANN has reported that some two dozen screeners have been arrested for stealing property from passenger bags in their custody for screening.

FMI: www.tsa.gov