AMA President and Staff Meet with Transportation Security Administration in Washington D.C. to Discuss Transportation of Model Aircraft and Equipment on Airliners
(January 14, 2003)
For Immediate Release

Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) president Dave Brown, National Aeronautic Association (NAA) president Don Koranda, AMA Technical Director Steve Kaluf, and AMA Programs Director Jay Mealy met with senior officials of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Friday January 10, 2003 to discuss the transportation of model aircraft on airliners.

This initial meeting providing a sharing of information between the two organizations; AMA provided information to TSA regarding the types of materials its membership has to transport as checked baggage and detailed a few problems that have been noted by AMA members in the post-September 11 era.

TSA has offered to work with AMA to develop an adequate screening procedure and training materials (for TSA screeners) to ensure the models and equipment are thoroughly screened, but not mishandled or mistaken for actual threat items. The first phase of this will be for AMA to provide different types of models for examination at the TSA Tech Center. The Tech Center will examine the models and equipment with the same type of screening equipment used by the airports for ETD (Explosive Trace Detection) and EDS (Explosives Detection) to identify any materials that could cause a problem during normal screening procedures. AMA staff will also be on hand to answer questions or demonstrate proper handling methods of the models and equipment.

AMA's goal is to provide any needed information to TSA allowing it to educate its staff and screeners, further to provide to the AMA membership instructions on how to prepare models and equipment for transportation on commercial airliners to be in compliance with all regulations. Once the training of the TSA staff is complete and AMA members are properly instructed, we are hopeful that travel by airlines with models and equipment will be safe and as consistent as possible.

Steve Kaluf
Technical Director


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