ANCPER, you say that like it's a bad thing
By that definition aviation, more than any other industry, is chock-a-block full of pedants, professionals who follow the regulations and procedures to the last letter. How many pilots or engineers would you think just use the procedures and regs as a "guide" only, and allow themselves to make decisions based on whatever is easiest or least inconvenient. In the av game it's everyone's responsibility to make sure that the people you are working with or for are safe, is it not?
Re the "
What's in a name? When is a tool a tool?" I guess someone with the appropriate knowledge is employed to determine that, it's not you or me, but I'd say it's someone usually far removed from the frontline. Just for reference, the item needn't have been confiscated, you could have told the screener that you wanted to mail it back to your home address. It would have meant stepping back out of the line or even being escorted to the Post Office. I've done it with one of those tiny (40mm) Swiss Army knives, it's a fair bit of work but you get the satisfaction of beating the system
I do agree that customer service is certainly not something many of these security officers waste time on refining
. I've experienced the "I'm right even when I'm wrong" and the "step out of the queue" attitudes firsthand. In this country we expect everyone to be polite, even the cops, however it's probably a bit unrealistic given that we are prepared to accept hard faces and machine guns when we go to overseas ports. Ultimately, we are all victims of the world we live in, "the System". Talking about the failings of it gets it off our chests, but nothing will change it, it's an entire industry worth squazillions.
