Me too. I won't fly on the airlines any more unless a family member dies and I have to attend the funeral. Maybe not even then.
This is AMERICA, dammit!
It used to be but not anymore. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Her experience seems like a normal trip on any airline right now. (\sarcasm)It is nice to see an airline employee (former or not) get the same treatment as the passengers.
Fly only as a last resort. 27+ years of flying world wide has taught me the only good airline employee or security agent is an unemployed one.
Can anyone (with an IQ above that of a cucumber) explain to me why a woman (especially one who appears to be anything but a terrorist) whose only ‘crime’ was overstaying her visa by eight days (four years ago) would be considered so dangerous as to be the subject of a body search of the magnitude (and consequent humiliation) that was performed on her?
(I can tell you, without a doubt, that, had it been apparent to me that I was about to be frisked in the way this woman was, I (and maybe even one or more of the agents intending to perform the search) would have had to be rendered physically incapacitated/unconscious first.)
It seems to me that one of two things is going on here:
(1) The ranks of airport security personnel have more than their share of power-hungry sadistic goons with a chip on their shoulder, or a score to settle, who obtain pleasure from whatever discomfort, inconvenience, or embarrassment they can cause to anyone unfortunate enough to look at them the wrong way.
(2) The ranks of airport security personnel have been ordered to go out of their way to prove that they are not profiling Muslim or Middle Eastern passengers, and they therefore harass and detain a prescribed quota of innocents.
That the American government is prescribing, and sanctioning, such behavior against both American citizens, and foreign visitors to our country, is just another example of the (for the most part) illogical, misplaced (dangerous, in that they are diverting our attention from procedures that actually could increase the safety of air travel) reaction to events of 9/11. All we have accomplished (at least on the home front) in the war on terrorism is an increase in government bureaucracy, further federal intrusion into American business practices, and conditioning the populace to believe that it is necessary to relinquish a measure freedom and privacy in order to achieve safety and security.
It’s a shame, too, that American airlines (and all of their employees and stockholders) are paying a terrible price as a result of federal intervention and incompetence.
America is in sad shape when threats such as those posed by 9/11 (and the prospects of more such disasters) bring few workable solutions, and much sanctimonious teeth-gnashing and second guessing …. followed by increased government intrusion into areas of American life on which government is Constitutionally forbidden to tread. While the real terrorists are no doubt continuing to make their way through our bureaucratic safety net with ease.