The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced plans to begin testing a system that would use biometrics to authenticate identities of airline crews separate from passengers, according to a Chicago Tribune article.

The details are still being worked out, however, TSA officials are eager to greatly increase the speed for low-risk travelers such as pilots and flight attendants while subsequently increasing speed for all other travelers as that many people would no longer be in their own security lines.

At this juncture, plans are to have the TSA database for the new check-ins accessing employee databases for the airlines and have the employees register a biometric profile so that they may be securely identified as an employee when utilizing the special checkpoints.

Pilots will be the first to be tested this year with flight attendants being added to the program later.

Read the full story here.