Airport screeners say getting up close and personal is no fun

Lexington Herald-Leader ^ | 25 November 2004 | BY COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON

[concretebob]

In the old days, the indignities of air travel involved intrusive elbows from seatmates and toddlers kicking your seatback.

In the last few years, they included removing your shoes to get through security and having your nail clippers confiscated.

And now this: full-body pat-downs - including bra checks - for people who set off metal detectors or are unlucky enough to be randomly selected.

[concretebob]

What's going to happen when the citizens get fed up with this and stop flying?

[concretebob]

PING

[sweetliberty]

Yet another reason I don't fly.

[GSlob]

"What's going to happen when the citizens get fed up with this and stop flying?"
Then we will - finally - have achieved a perfect security in passenger aviation.

[hometoroost]

"And no one, not even Grandma, is automatically exempt"

Unless Grandma is a Muslim

[Sola Veritas]

They just need to have some people with a little more common sense running the the TSA.

Wasn't this current round of "bra checking" a reaction to an aircraft bombing in Russia? Did they have definitive evidence that the bomber used a explosive stuffed bra? Or, was this just speculation?

Can someone here elucidate us please?

[Slings and Arrows]

"Conducting a pat-down of a person who hasn't bathed, smells of urine or feces, or has bad breath is not fun," one worker explained.

Note to self: Eat garlic-and-Limburger sandwich before next flight.

[freakboy]

Can you imagine the backlash if a woman in a burqua was subjected to such searches?

[Mr Rogers]

You don't want to think about what will happen when TSA realizes you can SWALLOW explosives! ("Bend over and cough...cough once more, please")

[Slings and Arrows]

[concretebob]

The genrally accepted theory on the Russian planes was that the women smuggled the explosives in a slightly more discrete area of the body.

Desperately trying to be obtuse

[BP2]

I HAD to fly last week on business. I have nice dress shoes which have NO metal in them. I went through Houston Bush and even though I didn't set off the machine while wearing my non-metal shoes, I still got tagged for this little pat down. Yes, too personal for my taste, and I normally don't mind stuff like this.

Turns out that if shoes are near one inch deep, you will "probably" be screened. Man, I hate to travel on the airlines nowadays. It just ain't worth it!

[Happygal]

I've made a number of long haul trans Atlantic flights.

No matter how a girl will try to embrace good hygiene...after travelling for 20 or more hours (with a change of underwear...because I'm like that!), I will STILL stink after being stuck in airplanes and airports for that length of time. When you run around airports getting connecting flights - you sweat.

Having that said, I don't mind security personell patting me down, checking my shoes etc.

I just don't want them pissing and moaning and getting grumpy about having to do it, when I'm feeling fairly contrary myself (because of lack of airline leg room etc)

[Cobra64]

What's going to happen when the citizens get fed up with this and stop flying?

Already have. Used to book 100k miles a year, on average, over the last 11 years. No more. Minetta and Ridge are clueless.

I wrote the FBI a letter on how transparent the system is. I'm on their watch list. Do I care? Nope. BTW, anyone have a glass bottle of wine or knitting needles in their carry-on? How's about a ME suicide bomber woman with C4 implants?

Connect the dots...

[quantim]

Note to self: Eat garlic-and-Limburger sandwich before next flight.

Small price to pay for a spoon-fed civil service job with full bennies at taxpayer expense.  While the rest of us risk everything in small business and actually drive the economy, create jobs, just mundane unimportant stuff like that.

[CTpatriot]

'They' are all coming across the borders...not through the American airports. Mexico is a sieve and the President wants to keep it that way.

[FatherofFive]

The best airline security measure --
Fly naked.
Robes provided by TSA.
No carry-ons

[FreedomCalls]

The problem is that they are looking for weapons instead of looking for terrorists. A weapon in the hand of someone who has no harmful intent will harm no one. Notice that it is not a problem that federal air marshals have weapons on board. A terrorist on the other hand doesn't even need a weapon. He will either fabricate one from what is available (pot of boiling coffee) or get a non-deadly item not currently screened and use it in a deadly manner (boxcutters). El Al has never had a successful terrorist attack because the screeners are looking for terrorists and ask a series of questions of everybody boarding. If you hesitate or appear evasive, then you are subject to further scrutiny. No one with malicious intent has gotten past them yet.

[concretebob]

Unfortunately, you are right. So maybe a massive email campaign to get the borders sealed, once and for all?
Outposts every 25 miles, manned 24/7, two Apaches per outpost, platoons rotated on 8 hour shifts.

[af_vet_rr]

Note to self: Eat garlic-and-Limburger sandwich before next flight.

hrmm...if enough of us did that...

You do have to wonder...what's to stop somebody who has a fetish for feeling up strangers from getting a job with the TSA?

I try to drive or fly privately these days, when possible. I don't feel safer with all of the strip searches, pat-downs, etc., because I see far too many doing these checks that are just not that competent.