What the exploding pager attack means for air travel

Attacks on Hezbollah using booby-trapped pagers raise questions about whether everyday electronics could present new dangers—and security hurdles—for air travelers.

Aviation authorities in Lebanon have banned travelers from boarding planes or checking luggage with pagers and walkie-talkies. No other countries have followed suit so far, and travelers can expect business as usual when they go through airport security.

Scanners at U.S. airports are designed to detect devices like those that exploded in Lebanon, said Jeffrey Price, an aviation-security professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver who also consults with airports and trains airport-security staff. Checked bags are also screened with devices using the same technology.

A spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration said the agency doesn’t currently have plans to follow its colleagues in Lebanon in banning pagers and other devices from flights out of U.S. airports.

He said the agency “uses a variety of technologies, processes and methods to screen for and detect explosives, even trace amounts, as well as other dangerous threats.”

Could the TSA ban pagers on flights?

There is precedent for the TSA putting restrictions on electronic devices on planes. The agency continues to restrict travelers from packing lithium batteries, such as those found in portable chargers and many electronic devices such as laptops, in checked luggage for instance.

Security authorities wouldn’t ban devices from planes altogether unless there was specific intelligence indicating a threat, Price said, a view echoed by other aviation-security professionals.

“If one is found, you’ll see a nationwide crackdown on electronics,” Price said.

How long potential changes in procedure would be kept in place would depend on intelligence as to whether any bad actors are planning future attacks on passenger aircraft involving devices like the pagers, aviation-security consultants said.

Some policies, such as limits on liquids in carry-on baggage, have remained in place for decades.

In other cases, attempted terrorist attacks have prompted short-term increases to security at airports. After a terrorist attempted to detonate a bomb concealed in his underwear on a trans-Atlantic flight in 2009, more extensive security procedures including full-body pat-downs were implemented for a period for travelers who had recently been to or held passports from certain countries.

“TSA has the flexibility to modify security procedures, protocols and technologies at any time to meet evolving threats,” said Keith Jeffries, vice president of the Security Screening Group at K2 Consulting, a Maryland-based consulting firm focused on security in air travel and other industries.

What risk do electronic devices pose on flights?

Electronics have been linked to past aviation disasters. A cassette recorder is thought to have been used in the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in the 1980s that killed more than 200 people, based on investigators’ findings following the crash.

“It’s likely extremists have thought of this before,” said Tom Mockaitis, a professor at DePaul University whose research focuses on violent extremism and terrorism.

Will security screenings change?

Airport-security checkpoints already ask travelers to remove large electronic items from their bags to be screened separately, although new airport scanners allow passengers to keep their devices inside their carry-on bags.

Once electronics are removed from the bags, scanners should be able to detect whether there is any explosive material in the device.

Should a device make it through security, it isn’t clear whether one of the pagers could have detonated if brought onboard a plane, said Price and Sheldon H. Jacobson, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who has studied aviation security.

“The critical factor is making sure that they do not get onto an airplane,” Jacobson said.

Write to Jacob Passy at jacob.passy@wsj.com