Airline pilots and flight attendants are able to sign up for a program that gives them a special way to bypass security at airports, completely different from the screening process that passengers are used to. Historically, this has been referred to as the Known Crewmember (KCM) program. However, that program is in the process of…
Continue reading: TSA’s Crewmember Access Point (CMAP) Replaces Known Crewmember (KCM)
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Seems unnecessary, and potentially confusing, but probably a power-play by someone in the organization, like renaming the Department of Defense, Gulf of Mexico, or country of Turkey.
KCM exists primarily because TSA was trying to theatrically force pilots through nudeoscopes or into pat downs and a pilot for ExpressJet had enough and just refused. The reality is that there is zero justification for such screening for pilots, who literally have full control of thousands of pounds of metal, filled with fuel and capable of flying 80% of the speed of sound - quite a few of whom are licensed to carry firearms on the airplane. There is little justification for flight attendants as well. The fact that the justification for this program change is drug related shows what a farce the idea is.
USA is one of the only countries in the world where crew isn’t screened. The international community (ICAO) is not happy about the situation and have pushed for USA to improve to be in standard with other countries.
crew members are usually screened at foreign airports before departing to the US, so the drug smuggling isnt a huge problem, though it is a concern domestically.
A similar situation had applied to airport workers (except at a few airports that had voluntarily implemented mandatory screening for airport workers, e.g. MIA and MCO). When TSA eventually decided to require screening of airport workers, it decided to break the law (specifically, the Administrative Procedure Act) and issue the regulation behind closed doors with zero public notice or comment, claiming that it had followed its own regulations.
Numerous airports challenged this, and eventually, a court ruled that the closed-door rulemaking was illegal and an agency can't use its own regulations to get around the APA.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/23-1290/23-1290-2025-08-22.html
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69265670/city-of-billings-v-tsa/
https://www.cozen.com/news-resources/publications/2025/d-c-circuit-reins-in-tsa-s-rulemaking-on-apa-grounds-a-win-for-transparency