Detroit wants to inspect your instruments

From Misha Keylin and the Hermitage Trio:

NEW TSA SCREEENING PROCEDURE AT DETROIT AIRPORT (DTW) – MUSICIANS, BE AWARE! Please read and SHARE!
Earlier today, the Trio was travelling from yesterday’s concert near Detroit, together with guest violist Jordan Bak. As it seems (a quick search on Google confirms), TSA is replacing x-ray machines with new CT scanners, and that will allow passengers to keep their laptops and electronics in their bags and not have to take them out. And due to this “new” technology, the violin, viola or the cello is not allowed to be put in this CT machine (supposedly they don’t fit) and have to be instead HAND INSPECTED. This means, the case must be opened, the instrument and anything else in that case visually looked at, searched, and (in the instance of the violist and the cellist), they were subjected to swabbing, so a machine can check for explosives, etc.
Due to this procedure, the TSA officer has direct physical contact with the instrument. In the cellist’s case, all went semi-smoothly (lots of back and forth between Sergey and the TSA officer and the cello was swabbed) but Jordan’s viola bow had a bunch of hairs ripped while the officer decided to swab the bow in addition to the viola. Keep in mind: Sergey has TSA CLEAR and Jordan has TSA Pre-Check certification and were standing in the priority lines for those programs at McNamara Terminal.
We understand the security is important, but having people understand how valuable, fragile and important musical instruments are to musicians is not fully understood by TSA overly ambitious actions.
We are letting you know so that the next time you are going to be passing security at DTW, expect a full strip down of your instrument case. We expect that more and more airports across the country (and worldwide) are going to implement this new CT scanner, so we hope that someone doesn’t have their instruments seriously damaged during this “hands-on” experience.