American Airport Security A Laughing Stock!
 

:( This really takes the biscuit!
................

Airport dash Briton thrown into cell as FBI terror suspect
By Nick Britten
(Filed: 13/04/2002)


A BRITISH hairdresser is facing jail in America after being taken off an aircraft and accused by the FBI of being a terrorist.

Sarah Johnson was rushed through check-in by ground staff when she arrived late for a flight at Philadelphia airport. But as the plane was about to take off three guards came on board and accused her of avoiding airport security.


Sarah Johnson: she was put in a tiny cell 'like an animal in a cage'
The airport was closed for 12 hours as Sarah was taken away in handcuffs, strip-searched and questioned. She was then put in a detention centre cell with heroin addicts and suicidal prisoners before being charged with defiant trespassing and released on bail.

Now she must return to America to face court proceedings that she said are "a complete sham". Her "living nightmare" began after she was late arriving at Philadelphia from Britain en route to Puerto Rico, where she was to work on a cruise ship.

As she ran through the airport to pick up her connecting flight, ground staff allowed her through without passing through the metal detector, although they twice checked her passport and boarding card.

She was taken to a local police station where the FBI became involved. "They would not accept I had been told to go through by security staff and were convinced I was some sort of terrorist."

Sarah, from Wednesbury, West Midlands, was transferred to a detention centre in downtown Philadelphia. "I was thrown in a tiny cell with a bench round it and a blocked toilet in the corner. The cell stank and there were two other people in it.

"Then a third came along and was cuffed to the cell door because she was suicidal. It was like an animal cage, worse than a zoo. There was blood on the floor and I had nowhere to sit. I was vomiting with fear." Eventually Sarah was released on bail, without any of her possessions, at 3.30am.

She now has a pre-trial hearing next week and then must fly out for the trial. Her legal costs are likely to run into tens of thousands of pounds. She said: "I don't have any trust in the justice system there but my lawyer is certain I'll be found not guilty."

Tom Watson, MP for West Bromwich East, said he had written to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, to demand an investigation. "This is the most outrageous case I have ever had to deal with," he said.


The newly-tightened security of Britain's budget airlines claimed fresh victims yesterday when a family party of 10 were barred from boarding a domestic flight because they did not have their passports or other approved photo-identification.
The group, booked to fly from Stansted to Glasgow Prestwick for a double birthday celebration, were turned away by Ryanair under rules also introduced by Easyjet and Go.

:confused:

Hmmmm you don't like the Americans do you Adam? Have you ever been to the USA?

Disgusted.....GIMMIE A BREAK!!!
 

I find this very difficult to believe. This story seems a little far fetched to say the least. Who's Nick Britten? What paper is he with? The National Enquirer? Or some other Garbage Tabloid paper?

Sad that this forum is being used for this kinda garb.

And NO, I'm not a Yank!:mad:

Look for the usual "How can I get a green card?" thread next...

Security personnel waived her through, huh. Sure they did. Let's see the videotape.

Sorry I really should have pasted the source of the above story. It is

The Telegraph Online


From the Saturday Telegraph 13 Apr 2002.
:eek:

perish the thought that a security agent made an error of judgment - cos that never ever happens does it - especialy in the usa !!!

Last month I went from Las Vegas to LAX, my bags went American I went South West. The joys of staff travel.
Will they ever learn.

To AdamUK: Stupid bloodey Limey, so typical!

Cheers,

"There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity."
- General Douglas MacArthur

This whole thing is an out of control mess.

See the threads about arming Pilots.

The Law is a ass!
http://www.shazbot.com/lawass/

CHECK 6 - Nice reply!
Best laugh all day.....:D

I believe this incident actually occurred in February. Funny how it is only just being reported now. Whilst DT says airport closed for 12 hours, another source says 1.5 hours.

Thank you Bigears.

Cheers, :) :) :)

Hmmm. CNN reported this a little differently.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TRAVEL/NEWS/...urity/?related

Shock, horror, law enforcement officers do not take the assertions of suspects at face value! In other news, water is wet and the sky is blue!

The headline suggests that US airport security is "a laughing stock". I suggest that incidents like this show that it is far from a laughing stock, but is taken very seriously indeed.

I just got back from a multi-leg trip across the US and back. I found airport security to be rigorous, but courteous and with what seemed like reasonable accomodations for the security and privacy concerns of passengers. The staff are obviously much better trained and coordinated in their work than they were immediately post-911. And even at prime time in a major airport, it took only about 15 minutes, including a hand-search of carry-ons. Plus - the exclusion of non-passengers from the departure areas has made them much more tolerable. Not quite BOAC First Class, you understand, but I was actually able to get some work done while waiting.

llater,

llamas

Strangely enough, the very next week, Thursday 28th February, I was flying out of PHL from terminal A, and there was another security alert involving a passenger breaching security. Once again, terminals B & C were shut down for about an hour.

Now, I'm definitely in favour of being safe rather than sorry, but PHL seems to be getting more than it's fair share of security cock-ups - which this undoubtedly was because what happened really wasn't this woman's fault.

Instead of the knee-jerk response of closing ranks around your airline/airport colleagues against the media, maybe a more open and intellient discussion about what can be done to improve security, while not making life hell for passengers, would be in order. After all, if passengers start deciding that air travel is just too dangerous, tedious or stressful, it's your jobs that will be cut.

I don't think that US security is a laughing stock. I do think that, certianly at PHL, it is not being accomplished in a very efficient or thorough way. The infrastructure at most US airports is simply not designed to cope with the level of security that is now being required of them. However, in the full knowledge of this, seven months later, still there is precious little being done about it.

I also think that the US authorities should maybe swallow their pride a little and go ask the European airports, who have had to deal with the terrorist threat for a lot longer, how they might improve matters.

Most American travellers I have spoken to who have been through London airports have expressed surprise at the security measures they encountered there. On being pressed further, though, they commented that it made them feel more secure. They also comment that the whole security business was at the same time quicker and less of a nuisance.

Maybe PHL could think about installing more than 1 (or if lucky, at peak times 2) x-ray machines per terminal. That would be a good start. Maybe also would doing something more reliable than posting a bored airport security worker on a stool to guard a vast 20'x8' gap which is used for passengers exiting the terminal and which completely bypasses the security checks.

I live in hope.

On a related issue, I have noticed that some airlines (BA is one) appear to have come to some deal with PHL authorities to fast track their business passengers through the inevitably enormous queues for the security check.

Now, while I applaud their enterprise (and how typically American to find a profitable angle to everything), I can't help feeling vaguely disturbed, and this may just be my British prejudices, that security is becoming a two-tier operation.

A fast track system has been in place at LHR and LGW for some years now. Its still the same security check but you have to have a first or business class boarding card to use that channel, hence the queue is much shorter. It may be that a system like this is in place at PHL. BA would not knowingly allow passengers to bypass security checks and certainly wouldn't make it a company policy to facilitate such.

Funilly enough, two legs of my trip last week were into and out of PHL. The return leg was at 6.00 pm on Friday evening, prime-time. Obviously, these were domestic flights and the security may be different for international. I went through security in less than 15 minutes, and that included a very complete handsearch of carryons and reference to a supervisor for a questioned item. I thought the staff were well-trained, courteous and very thorough, and they obviously had their SOP's well in place.

If I have a gripe about security, it is that it can be confusing to the harried pax where to go and when to go there. When many checkpoints are available and only some are working, there should be better measures to show pax which are open and which are not. [charitable mode] This may be how some of these breaches occurred[end charitable mode]. Some of the security staff might work harder on communicating clearly and precisely what they want from pax who need to do more than just pick their bags off the belt. But overall, I thought it was working very well, much better than in the days right after 9-11.

The woman whose problem started this thread obviously made some error of judgement - what, she thought that just because she was in a hurry, that she wasn't going to be checked? Pax have a responsibility to take security seriously also. Once she became a issue, it took some time for her to un-become one. Where did she expect she would be held - the airport Marriott? "Like an animal in a cage"? Dam' straight!

llater,

llamas

Congratulations to one or two of you for bringing up the subject of juvenile prejudice without a hint of irony at your own prejudice against the reporter. Did you assume that the writer of the article is a liar either way? I'd be prepared to wager that the writer (who, stone me, might actually have researched the article) is more aware of the facts than most of the readers whose sum total of knowledge about the incident has come straight from his work (and even then only after it's been pinched and pasted here). Sounds like vested interests all round. :rolleyes:

Hand Solo

I never meant to imply that BA were bypassing security procedures, simply that there is security fast tracking going on at PHL.

Maybe I'm just bitter about twice waiting in a 2 hour queue for security check and watching fat cats breeze through in their sweaty pinstripes! :)