Posted on 05/22/2005 6:09:12 AM PDT by QwertyKPH
Misadventures and hassles of airport security. Business travelers love to share stories of adventures and misadventures. My recent one about what people routinely refer to as airport security hassles, and what I call the TSA Follies, brought some doozies. Here's a sampler from the e-mail messages and from follow-up telephone interviews: "A friend who is an FBI agent was permitted to carry her gun on board an airplane after showing proper identification," said Stephen J. Firestone from Minnesota. "Her nail file, on the other hand, was confiscated because it could be used as a weapon." Then there is Barry David, an investment adviser from Tucson, Ariz., who travels domestically and internationally and served in the Navy's submarine service from 1956 to 1966. He wears a pacemaker and is routinely patted down at the airport checkpoint, but he says he gets indignant when he is treated like a suspect after the alarm goes off. "Last summer, I was so disgusted with all the probing, squeezing, etc., that I showed up in very short shorts, a T-shirt top and flip-flops, with all my military decorations on the shirt just to make a statement," he said. (Yes, he had to remove the medals).
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
Nope. I am an armed citizen and I will not be a victim. I will not be a victim of any, archly, 'federal agent' or of any Bad Guy (tm). I will again trust the airlines with my safety and dignity when I am trusted with my personal weapon. Scroom!
Instead, I rely on my 50+ mpg VW TDI and spend the time rather than the money to travel.
Ping
Why would anyone go to a store to get it - the TSA Horror is available at airports for free!
Yesterday flying out of Midway with my 8 y.o. daughter and my huband ....
After standing in line for a while watching folks go through the metal detectors, we were finally up. I stowed all the various stuff in the bins for scanning and got ready to walk through, when the guy stopped me to take off my shoes. I told him I didn't need to. He announced that "everyone over [pause to study my daughter] 12 has to take off their shoes". The fact that I had watched 30 folks ahead of us in the the various lines go through, some with and some without shoe removal, that there were only 3 chairs for putting shoes back on which indicated they didn't make all 5 lanes do so, and that we had flown in 4 days earlier without the requirement at another busy airport didn't seem worth mentioning, given my sense that he would use the observation as an opportunity to become even more officious.
Sorry, typo!
Ya just have to smile. Well officer, you can take the gun aboard, but not the nail file. Rules is rules.
I don't mind removing my shoes, and I thank the airport security checkers for doing an important job. 9/11 has not been repeated, and airport security is one reason why.
The main reason, of course, is President George Bush and his excellent leadership (what the Leftist nutcases and their stupid propaganda would have us all believe, notwithstanding).
Not specifically TSA, but at a military airport in Germany I saw them open the area so soldiers could by-pass security caring their weapons, ammo, field gear, etc.
These soldiers dropped their gear, left a guard, and went out to get a bite to eat. When they returned about 20 minutes later, they had to go through the metal detector where Leathermans and Gerbers caused a lot of hassle.
The shoe thing is a power trip with the TSA Nazis. I travel regularly to the Midwest on business. When I board planes there, I regularly walk through the detectors in my shoes with no hassle. I have "safe shoes" that I wear when flying -- Docksiders for casual wear, and Allan Edmonds (all leather, no metal) for dress. They never set off metal detectors and have thin, low profile soles -- not the thick sneaker-like soles into which Richard Reid packed explosives. In the Midwest, they are fine. On the East Coast, I am ordered to take them off and subjected to abusive secondary screening if I refuse. There is no policy. The only difference is that the screeners in the Midwest are more polite and reasonable than the thugs who populate the checkpoints on the East Coast.
Yep, there'a always one in the crowd who thinks little old ladies and babes in arms are terrorists just waiting to take out a 747.
Okay. The first & last time I flew United, I arrived at a gate. It was one of those big gates where a zillion flights are boarding & arriving at all the same time, and there was some kind of computer problem and all the arrival/departure electronic monitors were on the fritz. I told the clerk over and over I wouldn't be able to hear the announcement and to get me when Flight XXXX left. I got the "feeling" that they'd forget, so I brazenly sat in the handicapped "assistance needed" seats.
They didn't get me. I finally got tired, checked with them, was informed that the plane was all boarded and about to leave... I made it, but got in the last minute before the plane began taxiing.
Another story... I made a point of asking both the ticket puncher & in-plane attendant if this was the right flight going to Philadelphia. They looked at my ticket, and said "Yes" both times. It wasn't the right flight. That's why I love Independence Air (flyi.com) ... the tickets have UPC codes on them that are scanned in... if it's not the right flight, the computer won't take it. No need to rely on the reading ability of braindead union workers.
You're going to love the x-ray screeners that effectively allow the TSA to see through your clothes. They made the decision last week to go ahead and deploy them.
Here's my horror story:
I remember reading that a couple of years ago, a bunch of guys hijacked their flights with boxcutters that nobody thought were dangerous enough to confiscate. I forget how it turned out.
I've lost it more times than I'd like for anyone to know, but two things I try to keep in mind.
One is that coming in contact with lots of people in different places is an opportunity to spread ill-will or good will across the world. I try to keep telling myself this.
Another is something a relative told me, a flight attendant with many years of experience. I asked her why she preferred flying to South America rather than in the U.S. She said, "I really don't want to have to deal with all the selfish, demanding, ugly Americans." I stopped to think how many times I've been a selfish, demanding, ugly American (I don't mean to imply that you have been, at all, but I had been, I'm ashamed to admit, even in anonymity), and I vowed never to do that again. I don't think I have.
Maybe you don't need to keep such things in mind, but--unfortunatly--I do, and so do quite a few other people.
well where are you?
Mr. Lu and I regularly fly, and regardless of the airport, just take off our shoes. I've gotten a few funny looks from TSA people at airports where it isn't required, but so what? In the summer I fly in sandals and in the winter in slip ons. With loud socks.
Is it all necessary? I don't know. Last year I flew to JFK to connect to a flight to Madrid. My seat mate from here to JFK made me nervous because he was reading a backwards book filled with squiggles that I didn't recognize as Hebrew. And the two people in the seat in front were definitely Middle Eastern. One of the flight attendants questioned all three on their ultimate destinations.
I'm still here, so I suppose they were alright.
"The only difference is that the screeners in the Midwest are more polite and reasonable than the thugs who populate the checkpoints on the East Coast."
The last time I went through Dulles the checkers were mostly extremely rude women from Africa and the Middle East who seemed to enjoy lording it over Americans. I later found out that they did a security check on the security personnel and found that some of them were illegal and a few had ties to terrorist groups. There's your safety for you. Of course this was pre-TSA but after 9/11, I'm sure it's much safer now.
I think the biggest TSA horror story is allowing the flight crew to fly the plane, completely holding the lives of all the pax in their hands, and yet not trusting them to be armed to defend the cockpit.
If there's one thing I cannot stand its some rag head security type examining my luggage. Denver, Minneapolis, even Indianapolis has em.
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