Airport Security... No wonder I drive so much

[JConley]

My wife decided to take advantage of the American Airlines cheap military fares, and take the 2 kids to Colorado for the 4th of July to be with my parents.



She bought the tickets direct from American, (in order to get the military rate) and once she got to the check in, she was told that she had been pre-selected for a security inspection. My wife is 5 foot tall, less than 100 pounds soaking wet, in tow with a 5 year old and a 7 year old, and they started to give her the security screening of a lifetime. She had to take her shoes off, they went through all the carry on bags, and then she got the wand screening treatment looking for anything metal. I know security personnel have a job to do, but this is just obscene. A little racial profiling might not be a bad thing... and YES, she has an active duty military ID.



I often wonder how I made it to Kuwait when everybody on the aircraft had a fully automatic rifle, and the pilots were the only ones unarmed. Kinda puts a damper on the "guns are unsafe" line of thinking (it was a Delta Airlines 767 commercial airliner) Gota admit, it is fun walking around the cabin and cockpit with my 9Mil. Ever hear a stewardess say " Please keep the barrels of your rifles out of the aisle"



Sorry for the rant.





Almost forgot... 22 days and counting down. WOWEE

 

[Extreme1]

Originally posted by JConley

" Please keep the barrels of your rifles out of the aisle"

:-laf :-laf



If peaceniks ever read this kind of stuff they'd freak!



I know what you mean about the racial profiling. I watched a grandma get the special inspection when a guy that should have gotten in walked on with no problem.

 

[Boomer II]

Man, this is one of my hot button issues. Airport security in the US is a friggen joke! Like somebody said, in Israel they look for terrorists, here they look for weapons. How stupid is it to search a 60 year old white headed grandma, it's the friggen middle eastern MEN we need to look out for. I gurantee nobody is gonna jack another plane anyway, everybody knows the drill now, we found out after the first three planes, you saw what happened to the fourth. We've got nuthin to lose now, where before you were usually just flown somewhere and held as hostages, now it's all or nothing. A friend of mine had his nail clippers taken away, sad thing is he was the captian of the plane.

 

[The patriot]

I'm with you guys.

In order to find the people that does these things, you got to look for those people.

Not the grandmas, and grandpas, moms with kids, etc. etc.

Yet another case of PC gone wild.

Eric

 

[TPCDrafting]

On the flip side of things, my folks and I flew to NY a month ago. I was picked out for extra screening as well. I'm 5'10 210 lbs and 29 yrs old. They said it's completely random, I agree they ought to be watching. Too bad, if you're mid eastern, you should expect to be screened extra carefully. After all the terrorist activities from that region and now that we've over thrown Iraq, they have even more reason to plot terrorism against the US.



Can't wait to have ya back on our soil JC.

 

[MGordon]

They say it's completely random. So how come I've seen so many good looking women pulled over for "random" screening?

 

[LSMITH]

Random my behind!!!! It is NOT random, there is a matrix that pulls names out of the manifest for screening in addition to the security people being able to pick anyone they want. Some of the real easy ways to get selected are a cash ticket, a third party ticket, same day ticket purchase, one way ticket, more than 2 bags, same day return flight, and who knows what else.



I have flown a dozen times in the last 6 months and was selected for the full shoes off and a half hour late to the plane game EVERY SINGLE TIME. Conversations with some of the coherent screeners is how I know some of the things that will get you selected for the extra screening.



I can drive 450 miles and arrive within an hour of when I would have if I had flown at my destination. That is just sad.

 

[RustyJC]

It's gotten to the point that for any trip 500 miles or less, I'll drive instead of fly.



Rusty

 

[willyslover]

because of where I live the closest air port is 2. 5/3 hrs. away... add the 2/3 hrs. early arival they ask for [to assure even getting on the plane do to over booking] and then the flight time to wherever..... it has to be a 1000 miles or more for me to fly rather than drive.

 

[bmoeller]

Originally posted by Boomer II

How stupid is it to search a 60 year old white headed grandma.....

I heard one time that and elderly lady was screened and they took her scissors that she had with her to use while chrocheting, but let her keep the needles.

 

[BFC]

Please keep the barrels of your rifles out of the aisle"

Damn, when I was in the service she might have had to say "Please keep the barrel of rifles out of my *** " 18 year old grunts you know how that goes... ... ... .



On the profiling thing, you know when 100% of the North American commercial airliners highjacked in the last 20 years was by muslim, middle eastern males. It's not profiling anymore, it's a suspect's description. All highjacking included it's like 97%. Food for thought.



Glenn

 

[Shovelhead]

I think it was posted here awhile ago, but someone said it best.



Check the history of past Terrorist incidents.



It's NOT called "Racial Profiling", it's called "A description of the Perp. "



Ed