Posted on 05/31/2003 9:23:39 PM PDT by ContentiousObjector
Alaska caribou hunter is livid after airport security damages meat U.S. Transportation Security Administration is investigating
By CRAIG MEDRED Anchorage Daily News
(Published: May 31, 2003)
Caribou hunter David Williams arrived home in Houston, Texas, from an Alaska adventure in March to find a nasty surprise from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
When Williams cut open the strapping tape holding shut the first of two wet-lock boxes full of carefully handled, carefully packaged caribou roasts, steaks and burger, he found inside a mess and a preprinted form from the TSA informing him his airline baggage had been "inspected.''
The inspection, in this case, involved slicing open 45 packages of caribou double-wrapped in freezer paper and marked "roast,'' "backstrap'' and "caribou hamburger.''
Two months later, Williams is still mad about it.
"This baggage inspection was not done in my presence,'' he said. "Therefore I don't know if the meat was stacked on the floor during the 'prohibited item search.' Was any of it swabbed by chemicals for explosive detection? Did any bomb-sniffing dogs lick the caribou meat? Did the TSA inspectors wear new, previously unused rubber latex gloves while handling our tenderloins, or had they just finished handling someone's dirty underwear?
''The value of this caribou meat is about $28 per pound, and we are afraid to eat it. Would you eat it?''
Appeals to the airlines that hauled the meat brought no response, Williams added. They said it's not their fault.
And the Houston hunter, a former Alaska lodge owner, has had trouble getting any response out of the TSA.
TSA Alaska director Ken Jarman on Friday said he had only recently heard about what happened and begun investigating. He is, he added, determined to get to the bottom of the incident. He said he was almost as shocked as Williams at what happened.
"I'm a hunter and fisherman, too,'' Jarman said.
Cutting open packaged game meat or fish is against both TSA policy and procedure, he added.
Baggage inspectors on the X-ray line in Anchorage aren't even allowed to slice packages open if the alarm goes off on a bag there, he said. And in Kenai, where there is no X-ray, baggage checkers hand-inspecting bags are supposed to pass fish and game meat -- not cut it up.
"I feel badly about this,'' Jarman said. "It is under investigation. We are looking into it.''
He also offered assurances to the many anglers now beginning to ship fish south from Alaska that they shouldn't have to worry about the sort of bad experience endured by Williams, who has cooled down somewhat from the day he opened the first meat box in his garage.
"I opened the first box, and that was the first time I knew anything because they had retaped the box,'' he said. "I was irate. I was glad I couldn't get a hold of somebody when I opened that box. I had to cool down before I did anything I was so upset.''
Williams suspects the meat-slashing took place at the Kenai airport, where he first boarded a commercial flight upon returning from a caribou hunt in the Iliamna area. He was participating in a special winter hunt the state Board of Game established several years ago to try to trim the growing Mulchatna caribou herd before it overtaxes its range.
Williams said he was glad to have the opportunity.
Going to Alaska to hunt and fish, he said, "is my favorite thing to do. I don't bowl. I don't play golf. We usually go up in June and again in July. I went up early to get a caribou. I hadn't been up in winter in a long time, and we were out of meat.''
Williams said he plans to come back soon to fish, even though the March trip left him angry. Mainly, he said, he wants the government to get the baggage-inspection system fixed in Alaska. He has, he said, shipped meat and fish through major airports across the country and never had a problem like this.
"I'm trying to make a little stink about it,'' Williams admitted. "If nobody says anything, it just gets worse.
"Something needs to be changed so all of that stuff is scanned and not cut open. I have taken meat through the Houston airport and asked that it be scanned, and it has passed perfectly through a scanner.''
Similar scanners, Jarman said, are now being used for everything in Anchorage. And he's trying to get scanners for Kenai. Inspectors there, at the moment, are still hand-inspecting, but they are not supposed to slice anything open.
Williams wonders about that.
"The government doesn't have any customer service,'' he said.
Jarman, however, assured that the TSA in Alaska will try to act like it does.
There, now you can all have a go at ME and tell me how stupid I am for injecting a little truth into this harangue you all have going here.
Some months ago I was at Denver airport.
I had carefully removed all metallic objects from my person in order to avoid setting off the metal detector.
The screener waves his magic wand over and around me, down my legs and 'BEEP'.
The eyelets on my shoes set it off.( there may be a 'beep' button on the wand)
Of course I now have to go over and remove my shoes.
He wanted my shoes off, one way or the other.
IMHO.. this security hoax is killing the airline industry. Searching baby diapers, old women, etc.
I can fly free but if I can drive where I want to go in a day, that's what I do.
It doesn't matter what the rules are if no one enforces them.
This was after we had waited two hours to go thru security. We missed our flight. You had to be there ten min. before take off so they could match bags with passengers. I recall the 9/11 terrorists didn't mind being blown up in the plane - what makes TSA think that future terrorists will try to blow up with plane with a bomb in their bag, without going on the flight. Terrorists don't mind being blown up, they are suicide bombers. What good would it have done to match bags to passengers on 9/11. Those guys planned to go down with the plane.
Then they not only took our bags off the plane, WE had to go find out what they did with them. The people working at the airport didn't know what to do.
I felt so sorry for the elderly people who had to use canes and walkers, and the young couples with crying kids, as we waited in line for two hours to go through security.
I WILL NEVER USE DENVER AIRPORT AGAIN. The next time we went to visit my father-in-law in Denver, WE DROVE, IN THE WINTER WEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There was an old woman in front of me that was so feeble she shouldn't have been travelling alone. She committed the heinous 'crime' of starting down the 'to be searched' line, then realized she was in the wrong line. Apparently starting down that line and turning around is a major no-no.
I could not believe the way they treated that lady. I was boiling mad, but just bit my tongue.
BTW.. did you happen to see the mural on the wall in the baggage claim area?
It looks like a cross between Star Wars and the Nazi invasion of Poland. I remember several threads on FR concerning this and other murals at DIA.
There are some cork screws out there that one could do some major damage with, but they're now allowed in your carry-on.
Cuticle clippers, eyelash curlers, tweezers and knitting needles are all ok. No pointy scissors of any kind are allowed.
Leave your fancy propane burning cigar and pipe lighting torches at home and don't buy one on vacation. They won't allow those even in your checked baggage. Those things cost $30 to as much as $400 and TSA will make a passenger surrender it. I saw one guy almost go nuts when TSA confiscated his $400 torch. At least they left him his cigars. ;)
A passenger can only carry-on 2 'Bic' lighters and 4 books of matches. The extras are confiscated.
No tools allowed in your carry-on, nada, none, checked baggage only, unless it's for a prosthesis.
I hope this helps. Keep in mind that this could all change next week, though. ;^)
What a bargain! Bwahahaha!
a little D*MNED presumptious I'd say ...
I don't know who packed this meat or where, but if there was any way that these packages were placed on a surface that had gunpowder residue on it, at the hunting lodge, that might have been enough to trigger an alarm on TSA's ETD (Explosives Trace Detection) machine.
I've been in line when a passenger's computer gave a false positive for explosive residue on an ETD machine. Let me tell you, a lot of these Screeners may be none too bright, but even their neurons must screem 'Oh Shit!' when that machine alarms.
IMO, a terrorist doesn't have to get a bomb on a plane to cause another crisis. If a bomb went off in a busy checkpoint, with a thousand or so passengers standing in line at the ticket counter or waiting to enter the so-called sterile gate areas, it would be just as bad.
A bomb exploding in a checked baggage inspection area, fully staffed with TSA employees, would be equally as bad.
It would have the same negative impact on the traveling public's confidence in their ability to fly safely.
Wouldn't all of you agree?
You're asking for the impossible with a request/a question like that ...
The supervisor I talked to showed me the book. He says it says no dry ice. He was looking in the wrong column!
It wasn't completely his fault. There were two pages and the columns were transposed from one page to another. I'll bet those 2 pages in their SOP books are messed up all over the country.
You've been real lucky up until now. :)
It's because of him that TSA wants all shoes with soles that are more than 1" thick, platform heels and athletic shoes passed through the x-ray machine and even ETD'ed.
I've seen terminals jammed with 2,000 domestic and international passengers, trying to catch connecting flights, at one time.
That would be a major catastrophe.
Wouldn't you agree?
There's a good chance this box had some explosive's trace (gun powder) on it, if it was packed at a hunting lodge.
It's not their fault.
It's our fault for over-reacting and putting un-accountable union jackboot's in charge of air travel.
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