Israelification of airports?

[another cfii]

Thx Dornier for the info, i didn't know they're for show as well. How sad! I thought i read some kind of statistics of how they were able to deter crime in their subway system. I guess they're just as red tape as we are over there.

 

[G100driver]

How many flights a day go in and out of Tel Aviv everyday? Would it be practicle to do what they do in Israel at JKK, EWR or ORD? How much more in taxes would we have to pay to have college educated screeners with career benefits at our airports?

Seems to me that this would never work in a divided country such as ours. Both the ACLU and the teabagers would have have huge problem with this.

 

[AceCrackshot]

I just did a trip to LLBG. There screening is second to none. Fact is that most of it is totally transparent to the passenger. If you know what you are looking for then yes, you see it. The way that the airport is designed and coodons off each step of the process is evident.

It took us 20 minutes to go from the van to the line at the McDonald's. That was with an escort. For the customers it takes about 40 mins to an hour and a half depending on the lines.

We need to stop saying why we can't and start asking how we can.

The answer is COMPLETELY SCRAPPING the bureaucracies that handed us the 9/11 and knicker-bomber fiascoes and rebuilding from the ground up.

However, short of a nuclear exchange, this simply isn't going to happen. The Bureaucracy, while staffed from stem to stern with abolutely wonderful people, is an Augean Stable of non-accountability and incompetence.

 

[redflyer65]

You guys have forgotten what the Homeland Director said after the Dec 25 event..

The system worked!!

 

[beytzim]

I remember a few years ago when I was going thru Israeli security with my baby boy. The wife and I were just about to wake him up, take him out of the stroller, fold it up, and squeeze it thru the xray machine, when the Israeli security lady said, "what are you doing? You're going to wake up the baby!!" she told us to keep the baby in the stroller and walk right on thru the xray machine while it beeped off and she didn't care one bit.

Is that profiling? Yes! and I'm all for it.

I go to Israel every year and the security line is shorter and with less hassle than the US. Many people mention that Tel Aviv is a small airport and the US couldnt handle their methods in EWR or ATL, but I must disagree. TLV is small, but actually pretty busy during their midnight pushes, with thousands of passengers going thru one small entrance - as busy as any US airport!

The interviewers/screeners aren't psychology majors with PhDs. They're actually kids, usually about 22 years old. I know there a lot of morons in the TSA, but I'm sure they could handle the job of staring at someone's eyes while asking them half a dozen questions. Real terrorists are not cool and calm before they attack, they aren't trained warriors, they're usually pretty dumb themselves, and will easily reveal their nervousness when asked a few simple questions.

Someone said earlier that Israel doesn't have the ACLU and organizations like that so they have free will to be as nasty as they want to be. That's not true. Israel is a democracy with the same rights that Americans cherish. Israelis just understand that political correctness kills innocent lives.

 

[another cfii]

Israelis just understand that political correctness kills innocent lives.

Yep, they have their own social problems just like ours. But seems like our society would rather take our securities for granted. So sad... Let's see if this administration can do anything to booster aviation security, and restore public confidence.

 

[TWA Dude]

Not what one would expect to read:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1141730.html

Haaretz probe: Israel airport security often carried out by untrained employees

By Zohar Blumenkrantz

As airports the world over tighten their security following the attempted Christmas bombing on a Northwest Airlines plane, the final security check at Ben-Gurion International Airport is being carried out by employees who have not been trained for the job, Haaretz has learned.

This month, the airport has been lacking professional security officers, because the new firm responsible for examining passengers and their carry-on luggage does not have enough staff.

The Airports Authority has been using its own staff to compensate for the lack of manpower, but some of these people did not receive the training to carry out the security checks necessary, security officers told Haaretz.
This is the last, most important security check, directly prior to embarkation. At this point, passengers have passed the first security interview and received a boarding pass, and said good-bye to anyone who is not traveling.

Here, passengers pass through a metal detector, and their carry-on luggage is scanned.

Until now, the check was carried out by L.M., a private firm, but in January, the role passed to another firm, Hatama.

Hatama, which won the Airports Authority tender, pays lower wages, and as a result is having trouble finding experienced, trained employees.

Many employees of L.M. refused to work for Hatama for lower pay. The Airports Authority staff members filling in the gaps generally work interviewing passengers and checking luggage. Only a few are trained to handle the X-ray machines used to scan carry-on bags.

The Airports Authority is responsible for teaching the private firms' staff how to use the X-ray machines. However, in at least one incident last week, untrained staff members were asked to operate the machines.

According to a security officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, the reinforcement employees received a short overview of the machine, which they then proceeded to operate.

"Special training is required to operate the X-ray machine," the officer told Haaretz. "But the rushed training that we underwent last week was a joke. I'm afraid I will be asked to do a job I do not know how to do, and that I will be unable to identify suspicious objects in passengers' hand luggage."

Other security officers complained that they are overworked because they have to make up for the lack of staff.

In response the Airports Authority said that passengers' security is "a primary concern," and that "all security checks are carried out by professional and trained personnel, with no exceptions."

 

[PBRstreetgang]

Then what we do with all of the beloved TSA federal employees with their coveted GED's? :laugh:

Not to mention their BADGES!

 

[PBRstreetgang]

They also don't have to deal with idiots at the ACLU

Yeah, the very people who defend the constitution are idiots. How about you think, before drinking and posting?
PBR