Take your shoes off - Aviation security
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Dubai
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Hi all, I understand from a Man in the Ministry' that on 911 there were 'others' destinded for other places flown by extremely suspect 'American' crews who had fooled the US system which is why we are all suspects. I am just as pi****d off as the next with the level of scrutiny we are subjected to but just take a step back and look who is searching you and remember that if giving you a hard time for 5 minutes is all they look forward too be thankful we spend then next 5 hours enjoying the bright sunshine!! I absolutely hate it but I just hold my breath bite my tongue/lip and everything else and let the halfwit do his/her job.
Join Date: Feb 2000
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1. Why is it that in the rest of the world (maybe except for Aus, which is frantically trying to catch up to the US) where normal security procedures are used, there are not more incidents of hijackings or attempted hijackings and bombings using baggage then? If the US is right, only they can be safe and the rest of the world must be unsafe. Obviously this is not true.
2. How many times has airport security actually stopped a terrorist? The answer is easy: NEVER! If they ever did, you would see them crowing about it, and then maybe there would be some justification for the bs.
3. The last three hijackings that have been reported were carried out (only one successfully) with the use of a bottle of petrol (failed attempt), a pocket knife (failed), a TV remote control (successful!) and an Asthma inhaler (failed). If I was working as an airport security clown I would hang my head in shame, since this shows how useless we all are. But never mind, I can always stick it to the next pasenger or crew (I know to leave the baggage handlers, catering, cleaners, mechanics and so on alone, since obviously those wonderful people would never act in a criminal manner. Only passengers and crew are truly evil.). The aim is to do to all the airlines what we have just done to USAIR and UA. Only then will we have perfect security, when nobody is willing to put up with the crap any longer and nobody flies.
2. How many times has airport security actually stopped a terrorist? The answer is easy: NEVER! If they ever did, you would see them crowing about it, and then maybe there would be some justification for the bs.
3. The last three hijackings that have been reported were carried out (only one successfully) with the use of a bottle of petrol (failed attempt), a pocket knife (failed), a TV remote control (successful!) and an Asthma inhaler (failed). If I was working as an airport security clown I would hang my head in shame, since this shows how useless we all are. But never mind, I can always stick it to the next pasenger or crew (I know to leave the baggage handlers, catering, cleaners, mechanics and so on alone, since obviously those wonderful people would never act in a criminal manner. Only passengers and crew are truly evil.). The aim is to do to all the airlines what we have just done to USAIR and UA. Only then will we have perfect security, when nobody is willing to put up with the crap any longer and nobody flies.
Gatvol
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: KLAS/TIST/FAJS/KFAI
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Check 6
It was obviously your grandfatherly look and your charm. Anyway TSA in SMF is mainly comprised of the unemployed from Rio linda, CA.
I left LAS in October and they were also very courteous and went through every dam thing I had, a couple of them twice. Identified an Antenna on my Sportys Transceiver as a Corkscrew.........So much for training.....
P.S. Contract comes out in march and things remain the same here..........Life is good at the Chateau Rod.
It was obviously your grandfatherly look and your charm. Anyway TSA in SMF is mainly comprised of the unemployed from Rio linda, CA.
I left LAS in October and they were also very courteous and went through every dam thing I had, a couple of them twice. Identified an Antenna on my Sportys Transceiver as a Corkscrew.........So much for training.....
P.S. Contract comes out in march and things remain the same here..........Life is good at the Chateau Rod.
Join Date: May 2000
Location: US
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Another success story at BGN Tel Aviv
Went through the full security in the terminal today at BGN as crew. When I made it to the X-ray, they asked if I had any prohibited items. I admitted that I had a large Swiss Army knive in my flight bag.
The lady said OK, and my bag went into X-ray. The officer identified it on the X-ray. The lady then checked with her supervisor who authorized me to keep my knive because I was crew.
Common sense for once.
Bert, it must be my charm and good looks.
The lady said OK, and my bag went into X-ray. The officer identified it on the X-ray. The lady then checked with her supervisor who authorized me to keep my knive because I was crew.
Common sense for once.
Bert, it must be my charm and good looks.
aka Capt PPRuNe
Join Date: May 1995
Location: UK
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I have noted that in the US the TSA security checkers appear to be mostly middle aged and like their INS counterparts, have had their sense of humour glands surgically removed. 
Whilst there is nothing wrong with wishing to appear businesslike and official, there does seem to be something 'missing' from these peoples personalities. In the UK they are also mostly 'older' but they are not quite as 'robotic' as in the US.
In Israel, all the security staff are young, mostly in their mid to late twenties, having completed national service in the military, well educated, and with enough 'nounce' to realise the difference between the requirements to check an operating crew, an obviously elderly person or a child. They are highly trained in 'profiling' and therefore are many times more efficient than the current joke we see at most airports where indiscriminate searching takes place ONLY AFTER the person has checked in.
Until the authorities (read publicity hungry governement officials and politicians) realise that security is more than cosmetic and requires much more money than they are prepared raise, then we are going to continue to see the ridiculous and often farcical incidents as reported here and elsewhere.
Whilst there is nothing wrong with wishing to appear businesslike and official, there does seem to be something 'missing' from these peoples personalities. In the UK they are also mostly 'older' but they are not quite as 'robotic' as in the US.In Israel, all the security staff are young, mostly in their mid to late twenties, having completed national service in the military, well educated, and with enough 'nounce' to realise the difference between the requirements to check an operating crew, an obviously elderly person or a child. They are highly trained in 'profiling' and therefore are many times more efficient than the current joke we see at most airports where indiscriminate searching takes place ONLY AFTER the person has checked in.
Until the authorities (read publicity hungry governement officials and politicians) realise that security is more than cosmetic and requires much more money than they are prepared raise, then we are going to continue to see the ridiculous and often farcical incidents as reported here and elsewhere.
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: 30 West
Age: 65
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Unattended Bags at MCO
Wow, American Airlines have scored well this time. I checked in at MCO and was told to leave my case unlocked just in case the TSA wanted to check after screening. Then after I got my boarding pass, they tell me to leave my bag by the waiting line of checking in passengers - unsupervised and unattended ! Now I suggested that this might not be good practise but was rebuked. I locked my case, it was broken into by the TSA and they left me a note telling me so afterwards....... Ah progress at last towards safety 
Pathetic. Despite everything that has happened and after all the efforts to make things more secure so many staff, some quite senior, still seem to have no idea whatsoever what security is all about.
Oh well, as long as my Swiss army knife is left at home, and my mother can't sit on the jump seat everything will be OK.
Oh well, as long as my Swiss army knife is left at home, and my mother can't sit on the jump seat everything will be OK.
I find your experience at MCO strange, javelin, having just checked bags there twice recently. (Both times, the bags were taken immediately to screening, so they were never out of direct human contact. One time, the agent even said that I was welcome to wait - at a distance, but I could at least watch - until the bags had completed screening, if I desired.)
However, if it happened as you said (I'm not implying it didn't), and if the bags truly weren't being supervised/monitored by someone until their screening, I'll have a word with the agents next time I'm through there (next week). I'll tell them of your experience, and find out why they would have asked you to leave your bags unattended (when that is clearly not a good thing!). I'll let you know, either by PM or by post to this forum, what they said.
However, if it happened as you said (I'm not implying it didn't), and if the bags truly weren't being supervised/monitored by someone until their screening, I'll have a word with the agents next time I'm through there (next week). I'll tell them of your experience, and find out why they would have asked you to leave your bags unattended (when that is clearly not a good thing!). I'll let you know, either by PM or by post to this forum, what they said.
Last edited by McD; 18th Jan 2003 at 18:46.
I went through the screening at Dubai a couple of days ago, and I eventually had to take my shoes off.
F**king ridiculous! I don't know what was to be done if the thing still went off, I was running out of apparel to remove.
Don't the security people there have detector wands???
F**king ridiculous! I don't know what was to be done if the thing still went off, I was running out of apparel to remove.
Don't the security people there have detector wands???
