I don't blame him

[PanZa-Lead]

RELATED STORIES
A SOUTH AFRICAN Airways (SAA) pilot lost his cool Tuesday and stripped to his pants in front of fellow crew members, Harare International airport staff and passengers in protest against the rigorous searching he was made to go through by security.

Captain W Van Ginkel, who was minutes away from flying the airline's Flight SA 025 jet, was immediately arrested for indecent exposure, inconveniencing some 90 passengers who were waiting to be flown to Johannesburg.

Witnesses to the bizarre incident said the pilot, as per routine, went through the metal dictating scanner which bleeped as he passed through.

He was made to remove his shoes and go through the process again by a Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) officials but the bleeping sound went on again, much to his annoyance.

Ginkel was then ordered to take off his belt and on the second bleep, he begrudgingly took off all his clothes and strode through the electronic detector in his underwear.

But what was intended to be an expression of discontent with the meticulous frisking process turned nightmarish for the irritable pilot, who was immediately arrested by police for unsolicited display of his underwear.

Police confirmed he was later fined for "criminal nuisance" and released.
The airline was forced to dispatch another pilot from Johannesburg to come and fly the aircraft after Ginkel was adjudged unstable to proceed with the flight.

The incident, which happened Tuesday morning, caused a five hour delay of the flight.

SAA spokesperson later issued a statement, further apologising for the debacle.

"We regret the incident and we would like to apologise to our passengers and our stakeholders at large," said Tlali Tlali.
"This is a matter which the airline will investigate in order to fully understand the circumstances that led to the detention of our crew member.

"Once we have all the information, we will decide on what course of action to take.
"We cannot apologise enough to our passengers for the inconvenience caused by the late departure of SA 025 from Harare to Johannesburg."


Advertisement

[oriental flyer]

Neither do I !
security screening for cockpit crew is bordering on absurd
London and the USA are now using enhanced screening. If you ipad won't work ,it doesn't go with you , same with your iPhone .LAGS are also being severely restricted.
More common sense on security versus crew is needed , what they also need to do is profile passengers much more .But of course if they took the Israeli approach to passenger screening all the PC types would be screaming their heads off about racial profiling

[VR-HFX]

TT

Until you have completed your English proficiency course and can write like this (circa 1812) ,
please find another forum...

Gentlemen,

Whilst marching from Portugal to a position which commands the approach to
Madrid and the French forces, my officers have been diligently complying
with your requests which have been sent by H.M. ship from London to Lisbon
and thence by dispatch to our headquarters.

We have enumerated our saddles, bridles, tents and tent poles, and all
manner of sundry items for which His Majesty's Government holds me
accountable. I have dispatched reports on the character, wit, and spleen of
every officer. Each item and every farthing has been accounted for, with two
regrettable exceptions for which I beg your indulgence.

Unfortunately the sum of one shilling and ninepence remains unaccounted for
in one infantry battalion's petty cash and there has been a hideous confusion as
to the number of jars of raspberry jam issued to one cavalry regiment during a
sandstorm in western Spain. This reprehensible carelessness may be related to
the pressure of circumstance, since we are at war with France, a fact which may
come as a bit of a surprise to you gentlemen in Whitehall.

This brings me to my present purpose, which is to request elucidation of my
instructions from His Majesty's Government so that I may better understand
why I am dragging an army over these barren plains. I construe that perforce
it must be one of two alternative duties, as given below. I shall pursue
either one with the best of my ability, but I cannot do both:

1. To train an army of uniformed British clerks in Spain for the benefit of
the accountants and copy-boys in London or perchance
2. To see to it that the forces of Napoleon are driven out of Spain.

Your most obedient servant,
Wellington

[raven11]

Ahhhh.....The Duke of Wellington....written from a time when men were men.

For those interested, the Wellington and Napoleon Quartet, a series of books, by Simon Scarrow are a great read....

Back to topic: Recently in Heathrow, after going back and forth through the security screening machine several times, and then pulled aside for separate screening....I watched as the security agent was painstakingly dismantling my shaving kit....I reached a point where I could just barely hold my patience in check....I politely asked him whether he realized that after I boarded the aircraft, and flew it to cruise altitude, that my meal would be served to me with a metal knife and fork?

He was not amused and just looked up and stared with displeasure.....

I agree with Oriental Flyer, if we are to take security seriously, as opposed to the form of Kabuki theater it is today, we need to do it like the Israelis...who do understand that a war is going on!

[Progress Wanchai]

What childish and boorish (fitting perhaps) behavior.

This Yarpie along with the Kiwi having a hissy fit over the Nullarbor should never be allowed to enter a cockpit again. Our role requires us to undertake a lot of meaningless duties and security screening is just one of them. The control freaks don't mind trivial time wasting as long as they maintain control. But being told to remove a belt, turn on a computer, trash a can of deodorant and they go to water. Minutes later they'll be checking noise certificates or doing LDA cards like it's the most important thing in the world.

Condoning a pilot stripping in public?? While agitating for a pay increase? You do realize that we're referred to by management as million dollar morons?
There's the saying you get what you deserve. Our pay rises over the past decade are certainly not the exception to the rule.

[raven11]

PW....to the extent that common sense should apply in the cockpit as well as to security screening....we agree. With respect to the disparaging thoughts and words from some in management regarding pilots, well.....that would form the grist for an entirely different thread mill.

[spud]

When you share the same aim, it's sad to see an ally treat you as an enemy. Seems to happen a lot in aviation these days.

[LongTimeInCX]

To be fair, I find most airport security channel staff are polite if you are initially polite and courteous to them first, be it a hello or a smile or whatever.
Whilst not wishing to tar all the airport security screeners with the same brush, it still becomes obvious, that a small minority of them clearly failed the interview for McDonalds, and this was the last gig left.
It is normally only those sub 100 IQ employees who take delight in trying to flex their minuscule mental muscles and exercise what they see as power. I normally pity them, but if they start crapping on un-necessarily or become rude, I ask to see the supervisor 'running' the channel, and point out the error of Einsteins ways to them both.
Without being rude or arrogant in standing up to some of these power hungry morons, crew should not have to put up with incompetent inefficient or illiterate staff performing excessive or petty actions to make themselves feel better about the job they have found themselves in. Most of them wouldn't recognize a real threat if it stared them in the face.

So yes I can sympathise with dropping trousers man, the Virgin pilot who did the same also had to look for a new job.
Yes we get frustrated, but I'd rather leave them feeling admonished rather than them laughing at me in my undies!

[Yonosoy Marinero]

it's sad to see an ally treat you as an enemy.

We have no allies. None.


Then again, when a flying Kiwi with a borderline psychotic mental disorder has been assigned the task of ridding the world of any flight delays by God Almighty himself and goes berserk when his poor F/O fails to step up to the crusade, it doesn't help improving our family portrait...

Incident: ANZ B772 enroute on May 21st 2014, first officer locked out of cockpit (http://avherald.com/h?article=476eba0f&opt=0)

As for the pants/jaw dropping japie, while I understand what led him to loose his cool, I don't condone it for an instant.
There are a few mindless drones manning these metal detectors, but the fact that they stubbornly follow these rules only illustrates what the industry as a whole thinks of us.
Don't let them get the better of you.