Plane Trip

anthony cheeseboro

anthony cheeseboro

Joined
Aug 8, 1999
Messages
5,094
I took my first plane trip since 9-11. I have to admit that I was nervous, although I had checked with my airline, Southwest, twice on whether I could pack a knife in my check-in baggage, I was still a bit apprehensive about carrying my knife along for the trip in any fashion. The thing that intimidated me was the news reports of random checks. What the media does not make clear is that random checks occur after one has gone through security to the gate area. By that time, a person who is legally transporting a knife has already checked in his baggage and has nothing to worry about. It annoys me that the media does not make it clear that transporting a knife via the airline is still perfectly legal, only carrying knives on one's person or in carry on baggage is illegal. BTW, I strongly recommend designating a specific bag for cutlery when traveling and never put your knives or scissors in bags that you mean to take on board, the new security is no joke and my gut feeling is that security and the police will not be real sympathetic to "I forgot" excuses.
 
Last I heard - the one guy that forgot a knife on his person got 5 years to think it over...:)
 
The searches of passengers is no joke. The wands are very sensitive. They picked up the metal lace rings on my sneakers. If you wear baggy pants you will be patted down. The wifes bra clasp set off the wand...a quick pat there. Steel toed or shanked shoes will have you standing there bare footed. Belts are undone or removed. At some airports random shoes and laptops are wiped with a cloth then it is examined for traces of explosives.
After the initial search they can pull you aside and search you again...they usually do this just as you are boarding. About every sixth passenger that I saw. Depending on how fast they do it.
Your checked in luggage can be opened and searched. They have a ring of keys just to get into those little locks.
I've gone though Denver (45 minutes for the screen), Lincoln Nebraska (10 minutes) and Arcata CA (5 minutes). All of them were thourough. All had an armed soldier nearby or helping with the process.
When I arrived at the airport parking lot I did a double check to make sure I had nothing on me or in my carry on that would be a problem. One fixed and one folder went into the checked luggage.
 
I've been through airport "security" at Washington Reagan, LAX and Atlanta. The guards that I saw were not thorough and could barely speak English in a lot of cases. They also do not properly pat people down. If you taped a ceramic knife high on your inner thigh they would never catch it.

One more paragraph ranting. I'm a federal employee and if anyone thinks that making them one of us will help they're full of crap. Unless the current batch of screeners is removed and forced to reapply there is little chance of improvement. Remember, it's harder to fire a federal employee than one in industry. Anyway, the whole knife issue is absurd. The planes were hijacked because the passengers have been told by the media, and probably the fight crews to just cooperate with criminals and everything would work out fine. This is what happens when you try to appease evil.

In my ranting I forgot to ask my question. What are they charging people who violate the regulations with? (Interferring with a fight crew) I didn't know the Federal law about knives had changed.
 
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