Get ready for more 'thorough' pat-downs at the airport

FILE: TSA agents pat-down a passenger at Los Angeles international Airport. (Reuters)

Passengers at U.S. airports chosen for physical pat-downs will reportedly face a more "comprehensive" screening after a 2015 audit that apparently showed some safety vulnerability.

Bloomberg reported that airport employees have already been notified at some locations that they need to employ a “more rigorous” and “thorough” screening. The screenings will reportedly include “more intimate contact” than before. The new measure also applies to airline pilots and flight attendants.

The Transportation Security Administration told the news agency that airport security workers used to have five search options when conducting a pat-down. But the change in in response to--at least partly-- the result of a 2015 audit. Apparently investigators found that small handguns and other weapons that went undetected.

Last month, as many as 11 people reportedly walked through an open and unattended checkpoint at New York’s JFK Airport.

Airport security screeners found more firearms in carry-on bags one day last week than they ever had before on record: 21 across the country, the Transportation Security Administration reported on its blog last week.

That number surpassed the previous record of 18, set in 2014. Over the course of the whole week, TSA confiscated 79 firearms in carry-ons nationwide, 68 of which were loaded and 21 had a round chambered, meaning a bullet was ready to be fired.

Bruce Anderson, a TSA spokesman, told Bloomberg that individuals who were patted-down in the past will notice that the new measures will be “more involved.”

The report said that the new process will not increase airport delays, except for the person being patted-down. About 2 million people are subjected to TSA screens in the U.S., the report said.