TSA to extend mask mandate as Myrtle Beach airport, police fail to enforce it
The Transportation Security Administration plans to extend the mask mandate at the nation’s airports until at least next year.
A TSA spokesman told the Associated Press Tuesday that the agency will be extending the mask mandate to Jan. 18, 2022. It was set to expire Sept. 13.
The extension comes as fewer and fewer passengers at Myrtle Beach International Airport bother to wear masks when inside. Not only is a dwindling number complying with the federal mandate, which holds the force of law, enforcement is near nonexistent. The Sun News has observed hundreds of people — passengers, law enforcement and airport employees — failing to wear masks inside the airport. Sun News reporters have also been unable to find a single sign reminding people to wear a mask when inside the airport outside of the security checkpoint.
Horry County Police officers, which themselves have been breaking federal law by not wearing masks when inside the airport, has not written a single ticket for failing to wear a mask inside the airport in the last six weeks. The county has repeatedly refused to explain why its officers won’t wear masks in the airport. Instead, a spokeswoman has insisted — falsely — that officers are following all relevant guidelines.
On Monday, a Sun News reporter observed a woman take off her mask immediately after stepping off the plane. No one approached her as she walked through the entirety of the airport to ask her to put her mask back on.
The mask mandate exists because airports — and public transportation in general — are some of the most dangerous places to be during the pandemic. Thousands of people are forced into close proximity indoors, making it easy for COVID to spread by air, but there’s also an extremely high number of high-contact surfaces, another way that COVID can spread easily.
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 3:33 PM.
