T.S.A. - Changing Times

Just watched a very interesting piece on Sky News via CBS about the T.S.A. looking again at security at Airports.

In particular whether we all need to take our shoes off, and allowing stuff such as sissors back on aircraft.

The T.S.A. already spend 4 Billion Dollars a year on Airport Security.

More at cbsnews.com where you can click the link titled "US Airlines May Change Rules" watch the video at the bottom right of the homepage.

Any thoughts - Anyone else seen this ?

Well, the UK's sharp item rules were relaxed a few months ago, and metal cutlery, as long as it is property of an airline, is once again allowed on aircraft departing the UK. I believe there are restrictions on the length and type of knife, and the length of the tines on the fork. With the exception of spoons, household cutlery will still be confiscated. Round-ended scissors (like the ones you got at infant school) are allowed, and I think the knee-jerk ban on knitting needles has been lifted too.

Of course, we've never had the farcical "all shoes off" procedure here.

Interestingly, I've just come through Munich, and the procedure there is if you set the archway off, you get manually scanned with a Garrett wand. If your shoes are causing the Garrett wand to go off, there is a seat next to the archway, you're asked to sit down by the guard, remove your shoes, and the guard will put them through the x-ray, and then give them back to you.

It seems like the Germans have worked out a dignified way of dealing with the "shoe problem".

About time that the TSA started looking around at other countries for sharing best practices.

Mike

[honey lamb]

About time that the TSA started looking around at other countries for sharing best practices.

A friend of mine works in the Central Audit Office in America and his current project is the TSA and comparing its practices to that of other countries.

IMHO this is ridiculous. For the sake of stopping another 9/11 event why not keep these bans in place. Why do you need knives, scissors, cutlery, knitting needles in fact anything sharp onboard an aircraft? I hope I shall be proved wrong but if these rules are relaxed something else will happen, even if it does not include gaining entry to the cockpit.

If you start to relax these rules, how long will it be until they relax the rules on screening of bags (I know they still don't screen enough cargo - but thats a different story), and something deadly gets on board.

In the interests of safety I gratefully travel without any item that could be construed as dangerous.

Civil Liberties? I have nothing to hide to go ahead.

Paul

I quite agree that there should be no need for sharp items in personal belongings on board, however my granny would have liked to have knitted to while away time and she wouldn't understand that someone suspected her of being a frightening terrorist! However there have to be rules and they should be adhered to, so it's either no sharp things or not. Then of course you get the ridiculous situation of having glasses and bottles on board ... well I'm sorry, I believe some people could do more damage with a broken bottle than a nail file! Problem is, whatever rules there are they will be open to ridicule and exception.

As with the shoes ... well don't get me started. I've had to take flip flops off, Tod's driving shoes etc. It just makes no sense to me ... and clearly we don't do it here. Mind you in the 70s when some relatives emigrated to Canada and my unles hollowed out my aunt's platforms to hide some cash in they would have been uncovered!

Originally posted by slinky09
my granny would have liked to have knitted to while away time

I'm sure my Mother would like to smoke the entire flight to while away the time, and I am sure there are a lot of people who would like to while away time and some in soem really anti-social ways. But this is the burden of travel. I am sure most can make a small sacrifice for the interest of having a safe and worry free flight.

Shoes are a joke. I never volunteer my shoes and very rarely am I asked to remove them. Most seem to volunteer to have my shoes scanned. Do you think the like of Richard Reid would volunteer to have their shoes scanned? I think not.

I remember flying in Oct 2001 and we boarded the aircraft at MCO. Captain came on said that the 'officials' had forget to check shoes so everyone had to get off and then sniffer dogs were brought on board and then we loaded again, this time checking shoes.

Paul

[ChuckC]

Andrew,
Thanks so much for your comments. I am glad that the debate about the effectiveness and righteousness of the TSA's policies is healthy: may it continue, even if it means that a bit of rancor accompanies the discussion.

For me, the wounds of 9/11 are still raw. Thus putting the TSA's seemingly bizarre if not horribly inconsistent behavior into some sort of meaningful perspective is difficult, especially as the events which triggered all this occurred such a relatively short time ago, as those airplanes and their pilot-zealots rammed full throttle into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

It may oversimplify things to say that "9/11 changed everything" but historians will remember that shortly after the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor Americans rounded up and shipped off to quarantine thousands of Japanese-Americans who had nothing to do with December 7, 1941. Such a ridiculous thing to do, but the government had to do something even, in retrospect, their actions would be (and nearly universally have been) seen as wholly unwarranted. What needless pain those actions caused. One can easily draw a straight line from the Japanese internment to the terrorist "profiling" of today, whether it's the TSA looking for sneaker bombs and "dangerous" nail clippers or Scotland Yard scanning camera images for Arab-appearing young men hoisting rucksacks.

Not to be overly maudlin about 9/11, but as my wonderful friends in the UK remember only too well, having family who suffered through the horrible Blitz and later, the "troubles", war is hell and its scars not only remain for a lifetime, healing awaits the passing of grief and grief has no universal half-life; we all react differently to such visceral insults. Governments are no different, I'd say.

War often makes no sense and it takes a long time for people to pull enough of the emotion away from the events themselves to understand why nations react in such seeming ineffective ways to being attacked. I for one hope that America's leaders will explore every way possible to protect those traveling to and from our shores. Unfortunately, to do so means they will at times appear baffled, overprotective and downright silly.

Again, Andrew, thank you and please help keep the debate alive.

Best regards,
Chuck-

Hi Chuck,

Nice comments.

Having travelled shortly after 11/9 to Tampa, and seen the state of security then I know where you're coming from - At that time armed soldiers at Check In, at shuttle to the the gate, and on the jetway to the aircraft is quite a frightening pospect to say the least.

What I find difficult to understand is the inconsistancy in the system.

Last November, I travelled to Orlando from London Gatwick, then on to Boston to see a friend - When I returned to Orlando after 2 days in Boston, I set off the Metal Detector, and was hauled aside for screening which revealed a safety pin holding a dry cleaning ticket in my trousers.

My question is why Boston ? Why wasn't it picked up in London or Orlando, and that's the inconsistancy in the system to my mind.

It's finding that happy medium where everyone is safe I guess

[ChuckC]

Andrew,
Sorry to remind you of this, but BOS was where Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers, along with others of his band, boarded their "flights to hell", American 11 and United 175, the planes that went into the WTC. Atta and the others were captured on film, passing through FAA security in Maine (smart guys!) with box cutters and God knows what else in their carry on luggage, but Logan officials took the blame for Atta's "helpers" having been permitted through BOS's screening.

I rather doubt that it much mattered which airport these fellows chose; IAD was no better, nor was EWR. Rather than have anymore unfavorable publicity, however, I wouldn't be surprised that BOS officials of the TSA have set their metal detectors on "stun".

Chuck-