Latest Air Safety Thrust: Baggage ; Federal Plan to Screen All Checked-In Luggage Will Increase Security - and Lines

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America's skies are about to get just a little more secure - and the lines at the airport could also get a little bit longer.

Friday is the deadline for the nation's airlines to screen 100 percent of checked bags before they go into planes' cargo holds. Most carriers say they will be in "100 percent" compliance by then.

But because of the way Congress wrote the Aviation Security Bill in the wake of Sept. 11, the word "screening" is a bit misleading. Indeed, most bags will not be hand searched, sniffed by trained dogs, or put through an explosive-detection machine, although undoubtedly more bags will get that kind of special attention.

What the airlines …