Posted on 07/05/2002 3:51:44 PM PDT by unixfox
After 9/11 it seems that everybody traveling these days aboard an airplane is a little more cautious when they decide to go out of the country. I had the pleasure of one such trip this week to Cancun, Mexico.
Cancun is a favorite for tourists coming from the U.S., in fact there may be more Americans there at any given time than local residents. Flights can be gotten rather cheaply almost anytime from tour companies. But what about the safety of those Americans (or anybody else for that matter) traveling aboard these airlines to and from Mexico?
I have taken 3 trips to Cancun/Cozumel in the last 4 months and almost all of the airlines seem to be lacking severely in security measures. Leaving the states isn't so bad, but coming back is a different story entirely. Sure they ask for your passport or birth certificate, and they have metal detectors and baggage scanners like other airports, and in fact they actually open and look in every bag that is being carried by passengers. That's good and all but most of the looking is just glancing into the bags and feeling around inside.
Now, as far as baggage being checked that isn't carried aboard, that is what is really scary. On each occassion I have noticed that the bags are loaded onto a belt that goes directly outside and placed onto a baggage trailer and then loaded into the cargo hull. No scanning, no dogs, no visual inspection, NOTHING !! It's as if these bags are safe since they are not actually brought aboard.
My latest expereince...
After my girlfriend and I had boarded Allegro Airlines flight 312 out of Cancun bound for Austin Texas, a man flying by himself sat down in the seat next to us. He seemed nice enough at first and spoke with a thick middle eastern accent and broken english. He seemed very nervous about flying, asking for water before we took off, his legs were shaking, he was looking around the whole plane, and just plain acting nervous. We thought nothing of it at first until after we had taken off, then he asked us if our plane was going to Austin Texas. Well duh !! we didn't stand in line for 2 hours for nothing. Once we had gotten airborne he again started looking around at everybody, started with the shaky leg business and would occassionally put his forehead into the back of the seat in front of him and close his eyes as if he was praying. He would try to make small talk with us and told us that he owned a sporting outfit that sold ski equipment (he did have a small carry on bag that had Rossignol printed on it). But what was really weird was that during the flight he let us know at least 3 times that he was a Christian and not like the "others". Whatever that meant.
Soon the flight attendants started handing out U.S. Customs Decleration Forms for the passengers to fill out before our arrival in to Austin. I told my girlfriend to watch what he was writing in the "citizenship" box. I kept glancing over to see what he was writing, but once he got to the "Country of Citizenship" box he stopped writing. He just sat there and stared at the form for what seemd to be about 10 minutes.
My girlfriend needed to go to the restroom so she politely asked him if he could please get up so she could get out. He said "lady, please don't ask me to get up, I do not want to get up" So my girlfriend said "fine, I'll just step over".
While she was gone he finally started to writing again on his Customs form. I got a glimpse of it and he had put Lebanon in the "Country of Citizenship" box. He then pulled out a piece of crumpled up paper wth an Austin address on it and used that for his address. I thought to myself "This guy is either stupid or just doesn't understand the form".
My girlfriend comes back 5 minutes later and had to step back over this guy again because he would not get out of his seat. However, about 15 minutes later he abruptly gets out of his seat and starts walking up and down the aisle of the airplane. He's looking at everybody in their seats, looking up, looking down, and making everybody on that plane nervous as hell. Then he decided to go to the back of the plane and stood directly in front of the emergency exit door. At this time you can imagine how fast my heart was beating.
He finally came back to his seat and started asking if we where flying over America yet, since we had just flown over the coast it was obvious. We finally landed in Austin and before we had even come to a full stop he was out of his seat and literally running to get to the front of the plane before all of the other passengers. He didn't get far though because a lot of other passengers got in his way.
We get in line at the U.S. Customs Immigration and this guy is nowhere to be seen. After standing in this line for over an hour me and my girlfriend had finally got to the front of the line. Once we got called to the Customs counter we started asking questions about I94 forms and he told us that it was a form for foreigners to fill out. So my girlfriend said "So...I guess our Lebonese friend got to fill one of these out huh?" He said, "Yep and he is also being detained now as well". We told the agent about our experience on the plane and he said they would "look into it".
So this afternoon I called the U.S. Customs Service to see if I could get any information about what may have happened to the person they detained from Lebonon. They simply told us that that the information was not public and could not tell us anything about what they had done with this person. I told them the reason I was interested was because I needed to know just how secure our inbound flights from Mexico where.
At that point I would have got up and said to my fellow passengers, "OK, Let's Roll"
Then we would have subdued Omar. I don't believe that I could have sat there and sweated it out.
If you want to find him you might check the top of the University of Texas Tower. He is probably up there launching helium filled balloons with baggies of Anthrax attached.
Yeah... that's it! I'm the exclusive supplier of ski equipment to the Saudi Olympic Ski Team! Yeah! That's it!
Just thank God he was a Christian and not like the others and next time drive to San Antonio for the weekend. Glad it turned out ok.
You called the wrong agency. The US Customs service did not detain this guy and would have no information on him.
In the past 8 months, the Border Patrol has apprehended 636,471 illegal aliens crossing the border. The INS Inspectors have intercepted 447,881 inadmissible aliens at the US ports of entry. The INS Criminal Investigators have successfully completed 32,417 cases and the Deportation Officers have removed 81,762 aliens from the United States.
Your right, we don’t stop or question anyone.
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