Sarah Carothers

FYI post:
my sister flew from Wisconsin to NC for xmas with her dh and two dd's. The older dd, age 11 went through the metal detector and sounded off the alarm (due to belt buckle, hair accessories). My sister also set the alarm off. Normal procedure is to pat down these individuals, which did occur. But they would NOT let my sister(who is a flight attendent for this airlines) get close to her child during this time. Also, an airline rep was standing between the line of vision of sister and her dd, so my sister asked her to move and she got in a huff about the request. Anyway, just so you all know if you are flying with kids... a pat down isn't out of the question for your kids no matter how innocent they may be or look. Also, just heard on NPR tonight that diplomats to NOT have to be searched nor is their carryon luggage. (and yet they'll pat down a kid). Go figure...

By the way, the pat-down is done in a decent way... the officer uses the back of his hand and he's very careful with kids. I think what irks me is that some adults are exempt. If your flight crew has to pass the test, why not each and EVERY single passenger? NO exceptions.
Sarah
(who do we write to complain to?)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Helen Hegener

Interesting post, Sarah. Our family does a lot of flying (even now),
and we've run into this peculiar activity of some people sliding
through the detectors with barely a glance from the inspectors.

I, on the other hand, tripped the buzzer in Seattle a couple of weeks
ago with a metal hair clip. Since I didn't want to fuss with putting
it back in my hair I just slipped it into my computer bag, which has
compartments within compartments...

On the flight back from Anchorage it took the inspectors a whole five
minutes - with the armed guards getting more and more antsy - to find
the compartment that darn thing had been slipped into! I didn't know
what was going on as they kept running my computer bag back and
forth, back and forth - they could see this long metal object but
they couldn't find it! <g>

BTW - there are *no* off topics on this *unschooling* list! <g>

Helen

Kolleen

>Also, just heard on NPR tonight that diplomats to NOT have to be searched
>nor is their carryon luggage. (and yet they'll pat down a kid). Go figure...
>
[snip]
> If your flight crew has to pass the test, why
>not each and EVERY single passenger? NO exceptions.
>Sarah
>(who do we write to complain to?)


A sore spot with me for sure Sarah!!!
I've always been pretty pissy about diplomatic immunity (ever since the
rape case years ago).

aaarrrrggghhhh!!!!1


kolleen

Kolleen

>Helen writes:
>Interesting post, Sarah. Our family does a lot of flying (even now),
>and we've run into this peculiar activity of some people sliding
>through the detectors with barely a glance from the inspectors.


I'm going to share a story I've written a few months ago, in response to
'beefing up' security and the constant talk of following the 'El Al'
security method.

I feel our security measures are more of a show than anything...

regards,
kolleen

___________________

I've had the unfortunate experience of flying El Al in 1990 to England.

There I was, walking into the airport with a nice buzz on ready to check
in, settle down for a glass of wine and some dinner at restaruant with my
friend then take a nice snooze on the long flight from NYC.

The second _I_ walked in the door (yes, I was singled out with all the
other americans) I was accosted by a security officer who said she needed
to ask me questions. I answered 20 questions and then another one came
over and said it was necessary to ask me more questions. Some of them
were the same and when I said that, they said 'just answer the questions.
So I did.

Then they took me to a small alcove that was off to the side and
proceeded to check my luggage. They asked me to tell them WHO was in the
pictures from the wallet, their relationship to me etc. etc etc.

In my luggage I had carefully wrapped Celentano ravioli and Drake's
Yodels for my sister in England.

As I sat there and lit up a cigarette they tried to tell me there was no
smoking. I told them they were detaining me they should let me go to a
restaurant or deal with the smoke. So they dealt with the smoke.

All of a sudden one of them comes running in shouting in a language I
could not understand and proceeded to make round gestures with his hands.
The woman searching my pocketbook looked up and I said to her it was
raviolis. But by then it was too late, they tore apart my wrapping,
tossed the dry ice and handed them back to me all dripping and stuff. My
friend and I got sugar rushes from eating Yodels for dinner.

After that, they told my friend to go and took me down the hall where a
woman officer said she needed to make sure I wasn't carrying anything.
She made me take off my sneakers and she put a metal detector to them and
then me. Then she frisked me.. it was rather quickly and she was thankful
I wasn't wearing anything that one can really hide something in (ahh,
life before children!).

After that, they walked me to my seat by an armed guard and I was told
not to move.

My other friend had joined me in England the next day and I told her we
needed to switch flights coming back. I said I would rather take a chance
on the security of other airlines than deal with that again. Somehow, she
thought I was exaggerating and she said 'don't worry, this time, I'll be
there'. She was a therapist and YOU know how they are =)

Well, on the way back, a watered down scenario of the above happened and
she was complaining like a woman. I said 'this is nothing'!

She proceeded to get into a fight with the stewardess when the employee
grabbed her and to put out her cigarette. And she couldn't believe how we
were singled out (as americans) and treated with such contempt.

As I left the plane, I held up a homeopathic solution I picked up in
Germany and proceeded to tell them that this is the same kind of
container that NitroGlycerin is transported in. I explained that they let
me hand-check this (no x-ray) and they let me carry it all over the place
while they were so busy looking for bombs. I told her that no matter what
kind of security you *think* you have.. its not going to cover all the
bases and still function as a business.

She just looked at me like I had two heads and prolly had no idea what
kind of damage 36 vials of Nitro could do.


I've flown a lot in the past few years and scanning for guns, large
knives and explosives are about all you could do.. not unless you put
everyone in a straightjacket and feed them IV.

Helen Hegener

At 7:03 PM -0500 12/28/01, Kolleen wrote:
>I feel our security measures are more of a show than anything...

Mark has been contending this is so since his flight to Michigan in November...

Helen

[email protected]

On Fri, 28 Dec 2001 16:17:31 -0800 Helen Hegener
<HEM-Editor@...> writes:
> At 7:03 PM -0500 12/28/01, Kolleen wrote:
> >I feel our security measures are more of a show than anything...
>
> Mark has been contending this is so since his flight to Michigan in
> November...
>
> Helen

My brother said the same thing, and he's active duty airforce (in for
around 12 years now and head of security for a large base). He was
searched 5 times at LAX when he flew home just before Christmas, because
he was a single guy on a one-way ticket (we flew him out on a one-way
ticket, too, because his mother was dying and we didn't know when he was
going to go back but we needed him right away) and had a "funny" last
name (Hungarian, not Middle Eastern, but apparently anything "funny" is
dangerous).

On one of the last searches, the army reservist was making conversation
and asked my brother what he did for a living (the bald head apparently
wasn't enough of a clue). My brother told him, and the guy was kind of
taken-aback and said, "Oh... how'd I do?" My brother told him that he had
not done well at all, and named the training videos he had apparently
slept through. Then he named off a few things they had missed - he had a
metal shoe horn that he could have sharpened in seconds; another guy came
through with a video camera and they didn't x-ray or check it at all - he
could have removed the insides and stuck anything in there; another guy
came through with a full water bottle and they didn't check it, it could
have been anything in there... and other stuff. He thinks it's all for
show...

Dar
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