Description
Conduct screening of passengers, baggage, or cargo to ensure compliance with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations. May operate basic security equipment such as x-ray machines and hand wands at screening checkpoints.
- • Ask passengers to remove shoes and divest themselves of metal objects prior to walking through metal detectors.
- • Check passengers' tickets to ensure that they are valid, and to determine whether passengers have designations that require special handling, such as providing photo identification.
- • Close entry areas following security breaches or reopen areas after receiving notification that the airport is secure.
- • Confiscate dangerous items and hazardous materials found in opened bags and turn them over to airlines for disposal.
- • Contact leads or supervisors to discuss objects of concern that are not on prohibited object lists.
- • Contact police directly in cases of urgent security issues, using phones or two-way radios.
- • Decide whether baggage that triggers alarms should be searched or should be allowed to pass through.
- • Direct passengers to areas where they can pick up their baggage after screening is complete.
- • Inform other screeners when baggage should not be opened because it might contain explosives.
- • Inform passengers of how to mail prohibited items to themselves, or confiscate these items.
- • Inspect carry-on items, using x-ray viewing equipment, to determine whether items contain objects that warrant further investigation.
- • Inspect checked baggage for signs of tampering.
- • Locate suspicious bags pictured in printouts sent from remote monitoring areas, and set these bags aside for inspection.
- • Monitor passenger flow through screening checkpoints to ensure order and efficiency.
- • Notify supervisors or other appropriate personnel when security breaches occur.
- • Perform pat-down or hand-held wand searches of passengers who have triggered machine alarms, who are unable to pass through metal detectors, or who have been randomly identified for such searches.
- • Record information about any baggage that sets off alarms in monitoring equipment.
- • Search carry-on or checked baggage by hand when it is suspected to contain prohibited items such as weapons.
- • Send checked baggage through automated screening machines, and set bags aside for searching or rescreening as indicated by equipment.
- • Test baggage for any explosive materials, using equipment such as explosive detection machines or chemical swab systems.
- • View images of checked bags and cargo, using remote screening equipment, and alert baggage screeners or handlers to any possible problems.
- • Watch for potentially dangerous persons whose pictures are posted at checkpoints.
- • Challenge suspicious people, requesting their badges and asking what their business is in a particular areas.
- • Follow those who breach security until police or other security personnel arrive to apprehend them.
- • Patrol work areas to detect any suspicious items.
- • Provide directions and respond to passenger inquiries.
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O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
