Will TSA(USA) accept photocopy of ID?

Question

If you are flying in the US and you loose your driver license and you need to fly back home, then will TSA(USA) accept a photo copy of your driver license?

If not how can you get back home if you don't have any other ID with you?

Answer 1

If You Lose Your ID While Traveling in the U.S.

If you are an American citizen and your state-issued driver's license or photo ID card is lost or stolen while you are in the U.S., the first thing you should do is file a local police report. Both the U.S.

Transportation Security Administration and airline representatives stress the importance of this step, which creates a paper trail and pinpoints the loss at a specific time and place.

If you lost your license or passport only (rather than your entire wallet or purse), the other contents of your wallet -- worn credit cards, library cards, business cards, family photos, etc. -- can go a long way toward proving you are who you say you are. These are not official documents, of course, but they carry weight in determining your identity.

Demeanor. Airline security personnel deal with fliers all day every day and are quick to pick up on suspicious behavior. They don't elaborate on what constitutes suspicious behavior, other than to say that they "know it when they see it." Regardless, try to keep your cool.

Bottom line: Unless you have some extraordinary circumstance -- such as an outstanding arrest warrant -- you'll likely make your domestic flight without your ID. Just be sure to give yourself plenty of time and be prepared for extra screening procedures and personal questions. Also, take a minute to pack copies of your license (both sides), birth certificate, passport, or social security card -- they may come in handy.

According to the TSA's own Web site, you can board any commercial flight with no photo ID at all as long as you have "two forms of non-photo identification, one of which must have been issued by a state or federal agency." That means you can board a commercial flight with an insurance card and a social security card or a birth certificate (although you may want to print out that TSA page, just in case you run into trouble at check-in). All the talk about the necessity of having "photo identification" is just that: talk.

Which leads to the next question: what is the purpose of the mandatory-ID craze that has swept the industry since 9/11? Birth certificates are not standardized and, therefore, are easy to fake, and a Social Security card merely has a name and a number on it.

The truth of the matter is that some of the new security measures implemented by the TSA are cosmetic at best; they are designed to make us feel safer when we fly, but do not, in fact, make us any safer. It's not fun to point out, but every one of the 9/11 hijackers had valid IDs, and some of their names were even listed on FBI watch lists. I'm not suggesting that we ditch checking IDs altogether -- just that we do a better job of grounding those who would do us harm.