Hopefully, it will be mandatory for you guys soon, as the still unsecured back door is ripe for exploitation by the bad guys.
You guys? Is that anything like
you people?? Who exactly are
you guys?
Presumably your post was a reply to me, as you quoted me. Was that a reply to me the ATP, or to me the mechanic/inspector?
I've failed to remember a small pocket knife before, lost a miniature spyderco that isn't made any more, and can't be had. My fault. But then for years, I've always carried at least five blades. I carried them for years, on and off the airplane, in the cockpit; a leatherman, a swiss army knife, and a tactical folder for one-handed use. I frequently asked when security might get around to preventing three-inch-or-less blades.
Guess what? Everybody laughed. What could someone do with a little knife like that, they asked. Well, well. I, for one, could do an increadible amount of damage with that one blade. It happens that I'm not so inclined. The same with a ballpoint .35 caliber pen...put you and I across a table, or in a room, and there isn't much difference between what I could do to you with a pen, as a handgun...and there's little you could do to prevent it. Trust me.
Is a pen a potential weapon? Yes. But then so is a credit card, or almost anything else that a person might train to use. I'm sorry I lost my little spyderco, but it was my fault. I forgot it; it was tucked beneath my belt in my waistband, and all but disappeared. It wasn't until I was almost to the detctor, giving myself a final patdown, that I remembered it found it. I don't have heartburn with security for doing what security did. I held it by one end as I moved forward, I didn't have time to send it away.
In all fairness, security offered to try to salvage it for me, but no joy.
I've lost a few little items. Is there value in screening people and material that pass through the forward screening areas upon entering the terminal and SIDA? Yes. That is the public view end of security. Security at air fields takes many forms, that's just one. It's far from the be-all end-all of security measures. But you know that.
Am I sick to death of hearing stuffed shirts whine about security? Yes. It's pathetic drivel, it's really old. I fly for a living too, have for a long time, I'm subject to screening, wanding, prodding, too. I take off my shoes. I remove my belt. I don't whine.
You may recall that recently a FAA inspector was murdered, his ID taken. The same thing may easily be done to any pilot. The posessor of that ID and an easily had uniform (or siimply a white shirt and tie for the inspector) might then try to waltz on board through security. Without being screened, the entire system has then failed. Is it right that people walking through that portion of security be screened? You betcha...you walk through, you're subject too.
FAA, TSA, and others are circulating on the ramp, watching. In maintenance, watching. Roving patrols are conducted. Cameras are mounted. Each area of any given airfield has it's own secure measures. That you need to take off your shoes is not a big deal. It's not. That you whine about it, is.
Do you know how many times in the last couple of years I've been fingerprinted? Several, and do you know how many times I've whined about it? None. But then, perhaps my uniform merely lacks the stuffing necessary to bring about that sour reaction, as yet. Time shall tell.
