TSA: I'm a believer

[Timebuilder]

This is one of those discussions best undertaken over a few cups of good, strong coffee. I have much more to say, but the hour is late, and I have an FAA ride tomorrow with our POI.

We will have to agree to disagree.

May we be victorious.

 

[Kaman]

Hello,
So far at the airport that I work at we've gotten off to a pretty good start working with the TSA folks. A lot of hte ones I've spoken with are prior military or law enforcement and even a former mainline F/A.
However, some of the procdures are ridiculous. I have a SIDA badge and can access the AOA via our bag room, but if I go through the checkpoint I've been asked to take off my shoes and the whole wand thing afterwards. I don't know if they realize this or not. It also really gets on my nerves to see uniformed crew members taking of their shoes before putting their kitbags through the X-Ry machine. I put mainline and other non-revving pilots on our flights all the time and have the highest respect for them and I just think it looks absurd to the travelling public. Just my opinion.
Another point that is really annoying to me, is restricting access to the "sterile area" to ticketed passengers only. If your screened, your freaking screened, right? The vendors that are in the sterile area are loosing a lot of revenue that ultimately goes to operating and improving the airport. I HATE CLT for this very reason. You can't even get a cup of coffee in that place!
Furthermore, if we are allowing only ticketed pax, what the heck is the point of showing us their IDs/tickets again? Maybe, I'm missing something with here???
Overall, I think that the TSA is doing a good job, but make no mistake about it. They hold the trump card and have the power to order an airplane deplaned, make EVERY passenger a "manual selectee" or return an airplane to the gate. Hence the need for good repoire with these folks!

Regards,

ex-Navy rotorhead

 

[Flydaplane]

Actually

There are many different brands of mangnotometers, some go off if you walk slow others when you walk fast, that's why its best to just walk normally at each airport. Don't know why the belt moves backwards first, could just be a way of tightening the belt, I'll try and find out...

 

[ShawnC]

Seriously though...the machine backs up to get a complete scan of an item. WE stop on every item to analyze it before clearing it. If the next object to be scanned gets cut off when the scan takes place, the belt will back up enough to get a complete scan of the next object on the belt...

Thats why I don't let them anywhere near my film. You guys still need to train these people on the regs, even still they won't follow them(BWI), unless they are hasseled.

I asked for a simple hand check of my film (about $100 worth of film, 13 rolls), it was in a freezer size zip loc bag out of the contianers, I did everything I could to make their jobs easier asking nicely too. It was painfully obvious that I knew what I was asking for, yet still she wanted to question me on the film speed, and saying that anything less than 800 is safe.

Shesh your rules say if asked you must provide a hand inspection of photographic film and equipment. I wasn't asking her to dig though my Camera bag, I just wanted my film checked. On top of that she gives me a snide look and as she thrusts it back at me saying "You know we aren't supposed to do this."

 

[RichardFitzwell]

Thats why I don't let them anywhere near my film. You guys still need to train these people on the regs, even still they won't follow them(BWI), unless they are hasseled.

I asked for a simple hand check of my film (about $100 worth of film, 13 rolls), it was in a freezer size zip loc bag out of the contianers, I did everything I could to make their jobs easier asking nicely too...

Was this a T.S.A. airport and was your film above 800 speed?

Film higher than 1200 is O.K. to send through the x-ray machine. To be safe, the T.S.A. limits it to 800 speed. If I were you, I would say there is high speed film in your film bag Then they will definitely hand search it. I even had one guy tell me he keeps several labeled high speed film containers in his film bag at all times. He stores his regular speed film in it. This way he is guaranteed to have it hand searched.

You, as a frequent traveler, should be happy we don't physically inspect every roll of film that passes through security. I would estimate that about 80% of the passengers that pass through OUR check point have cameras with film below 800 speed. A visual inspection of all this film would bring the screening process to a slow crawl at best.

 

[shaun3000]

I've never had a bad experience with DFW security, even before the TSA took over. Saint Louis, yeah, they were idiots. But DFW never seemed too bad, to me.