Airport experiences?

A

aa777888

Joined
Sep 19, 2001
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So, anyone seeing any effective security at airports? Anyone been patted down? Not me!

AA
 
At the Roanoke Regional the metal detector is set so sensitive that the buckles on a woman's shoes set it off. They made her take off her shoes and sent them through the x-ray machine. Meanwhile, one of the security guards did a pat down -- but so badly that this woman could easily have taken a non-metallic weapon through the checkpoint.
 
After two weeks of backpacking in the Grand Canyon with a group of 12 guys I was to fly home the Monday after 9/11. We had seen news articles the night before that said no knives could be carried on board or stowed in your checked luggage. So I collected all the knives (17), scissors (8) and multitools (6) from the group and was prepared to mail them home. When I got to the Phoenix airport I told the airline official and he said "no problem just check them in my bag". I placed them all in my duffle bag and asked if he wanted to check it. He said "no... just lock it up". Going through the metal detector they then had me gone over with a detector wand and then hand patted. After that we went to the bar for a burger and beer. I asked for a knife to spread some relish and was told that they could no longer serve metal or plastic knives at the airport. The barmaid handed me a "spork" (half spoon-half fork) and said that I had to make do. After departing the airplane crew started serving a meal. Inside the lunch was a packet that included a spoon, a fork, and a knife. The crew explained that they had discontinued the metal-ware in 1st class, but had no directives to eliminate plastic knives. I ate and started catching up on the terrorist news in the newspaper... reading articles about no knives allowed in checked baggage and how the terrorists used plastic knives. Go Figure... :confused:
 
Flew from Toronto to Newark middle of October to visit my cousin and my 2 swimmer chick friends in Princeton. In Toronto they asked me more questions than usual, x-rayed my carry-on baggage good and sent me on my way. They didn't wand or pat me down after I went thru the metal detector, nor did they inspect my baggage. What I didn't know until later was that they had the x-ray machines turned up to high, so the film in my camera was ghosted over.

Pretty much the same thing happened in Newark on my return flight. They asked me lots of questions on where I went and what I was doing, then they sent me through the detectors and wanded me, then they asked me even more questions. No pat down at all. I did see that there were more, lots more people than usual getting wanded or having their baggage searched, but there were very few pat downs going on. Didn't exactly give an impression of safety to me, just more hassles. On the bright side the airline was serving those excellent honey roasted peanuts instead of the pretzels they've been giving out the past few years....
 
I got patted down in both Fort Wayne, IN and Harrisburg, PA. Kinda liked the Harrisburg patting, by a female security officer, as I hadn't seen my wife in a week or so.:) At Harrisburg, a lot of people were checking in rifles, as every other person seemed to be leaving for hunting trips. I had several knifes in my checked baggage, but didn't have it searched. I don't think it's illegal to check baggage with knives. In Fort Wayne, the ticket counter people were randomly searching through people's baggage, which really slows things down. And at both airports, and at Detroits, they randomly check people at the boarding gate, too.

Steve
 
My last flight started in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and uneventfully went to Minniapolis. On the flight out of MN, one of the announcements went, and I'm quoting as close as I can remember, "Ladies and Gentleman, as soon as we reach our cruising altitude, we'll begin our breakfast service. Due to new FAA security directives, we will not be offering the hearty, hot breakfast we would like to serve you. Instead, each of you will be issued a bowl of cereal, a bagel, and a bananna. The good news is that the banannas look pretty good today. Yesterday's were a little bit embarassing. You'll each also receive a packet containing a napkin, salt and pepper in case you want to season your bananna or your cereal, and a plastic fork and spoon. You may notice that your package is open. They are all open. They were assembled before the new directive and used to also contain a plastic knife. We had to open them to remove the knife... what... excuse me...... I am now told that we finally have new sealed packets that don't contain knives. So, we're making progress. The breakfast cart will be followed by our beverage cart which features assorted soft drinks, juices, and coffee and tea. In recent days, several airlines have had to cancel flights and ground airplanes when passengers found mysterious white powders on seats or on the floor. In all cases so far, those suspecious powders have turned out to be either non-diary coffee creamer or non-sugar coffee sweatener. Canceling flights and grounding aircraft is very inconvenient and very expensive for both airlines and passengers. So, we will not be offering non-diary creamer or non-sugar sweateners today. Sorry. We thank you for your understanding during these troubled times and look forward to returning to our normal level of service in the near future."

In Spokane, I transfered to another flight that had just arrived from Alaska and was continuing to Portland. I couldn't help but overhear the fellows in the seat behind me discussing their very successful hunting trip to Alaska. At baggage claim, I noticed these same guys pulling large bags apparently full of camping gear off the belt. Then, there was a page calling a passenger by name to the baggage counter. One of the hunters left and then returned a few minutes later juggling several long cases obviously containing rifles. In the mean time, his friends had begun pulling large coolers with dry ice stickers on them off of the belt. Apparently, they'd had a great trip to Alaska and the guns and, I presume, the knives, all went safely and smoothly in the baggage hold.
 
Interesting thread. I'm traveling this Thanksgiving. Have any of these patdowns been sufficient to detect neck knives, or is it the really weak under the arms, down the sides, lower legs version?

John
 
>"I'm traveling this Thanksgiving. Have any of these patdowns been sufficient to detect neck knives, or is it the really weak under the arms, down the sides, lower legs version?"

============================================

John:
You might find and answer to this query over at whatareallydumbassidea.com.
 
Well, the wording is a bit strong, but your suggestion is right. Now is just not the time to be fooling around with airport security. Considering what happened last time they missed a knife at the first check but found it later (seven people lost their jobs and the fellow carrying the knives ended up in a heap of boiling water), I wouldn't want to try it right now.

The problem with a "pat-down" search is that they are inconsistent. Ten people might tell you that they've only been patted on the arms and legs, but what happens if you get the one guard how happens to check for a neck knife?

Not a good idea right now.
 
i got stopped at customs here in the uk, they opened up my hand-luggage and confiscated my razor blades and my sister's tweezers!
They really are taking airport security too seriously over here, if i wanted to do someone damage, i think i'd prefer to use a metal fountain pen (which i'm sure they wouldnt have confiscated) or even my fists than a pair of tweezers or the head of my razor. I saw another guy get stopped for having nail-clippers in his hand luggage, he got those confiscated. Things are REALLY getting ridiculous over here, its bad enough that we can't carry blades of any sort, size or shape, but confiscating nail clippers tweezers and razor heads is really taking it too far.
 
It may be not so useful, but i'd like to add my experience here in Italy:
I arrived late for the Check-in at Naples airport,due to traffic jams so,while i remembered to put my voyager inside the luggage, i completely forgot about my Victorinox minichamp inside the small pouch i keep attached to my car key.
The security officer(a pretty woman if there ever was one)asked me if i could show her what was inside the pouch.
Already thinking "damn...i forgot it"i showed her the minichamp while she told me "i am afraid i cannot let you carry that inside the plane,sir".
Ok,at least try to be a good loser....i told her:"Ok.Do you like it as a key holder? keep it as a present"-"no,Sir, i am going to trow it away"-the lady replied.
"you cannot do this to me! i am a knife collector, this disregard to the value of a knife is offensive to me.Are you sure that you don't have a boyfriend,a younger brother or someone else to give the knife ?"
"no,sir, i am throwing it away".
That's it. As you may imagine the cost of the knife was not an issue, the finance damage for me was practically nothing....but the fact that someone can throw away a knife without seeing it's value bothered me a lot.
I really do hope she was lying to me and she kept it.
 
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