Yo YO Yo! No more touching "my junk"--CrewPass coming FASTER

[General Lee]

Pilots to Win Exemption From Full-Body Scans, Junk-Touching

By Don Fresard November 16, 2010 01:04 PM


ANNALS OF NO JUNK TOUCHING

With Americans growing increasingly creeped out by the new X-ray nudie-picture machines and extra-intrusive alternative pat-downs that are sweeping U.S. airports, it looks like the Transportation Security Administration is ready to cave on one point: Pilots will soon win exemption from the intrusive measures.

According to Bloomberg, TSA and airline officials will meet today to discuss hurrying implementation of a program called CrewPASS, which would allow pilots who’ve passed a background check to bypass the scanners.

It seems no one at TSA had a response to aviators’ oft-cited objection to the logic of screening them: If they really wanted to bring down the plane, they wouldn’t need a weapon — they’ve got the controls. Plus, recently retired folk hero Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger has been piping up on behalf of pilots who want out of screenings, and who wants to argue with that guy?

Still, passengers shouldn’t start getting any ideas about the TSA going soft. Remember John Tyner, the “don’t touch my junk” guy, who blogged a cell-phone video of his argument with airport security after refusing the groin pat-down over the weekend? Well, TSA officials in San Diego announced yesterday he’s now under investigation for “leaving the security area without permission.”

And that $10,000 fine an airport official could be heard threatening in his video? That was no empty threat — it was a lowball figure, said Michael Aguilar, San Diego TSA chief. Tyner is actually facing a $11,000 civil penalty.

“That’s the old fine,” Aguilar said. “It has been increased.”




Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[DieselDragRacer]

He'll never pay that fine anyway. A Paypal account on some Facebook page will pay it for him.

 

[Raoul Duke]

So I can create a total mexican standoff by refusing to have my junk touched but not leave the security area? What are they going to do if I just say I will have a seat and wait until they change their procedure?

 

[redflyer65]

For everyone's sake, we need Crewpass NOW! Its been 9yrs already. And the TSA should pay for it. This is ridiculous.

Thanks General.

 

[Hvy]

So I can create a total mexican standoff by refusing to have my junk touched but not leave the security area? What are they going to do if I just say I will have a seat and wait until they change their procedure?

Try that and let us know.

 

[densoo]

By John Hughes - Nov 19, 2010 10:39 AM ET U.S. airline pilots will be exempted from physical checks at airport security checkpoints so federal screeners can better focus their attention on passengers, the Transportation Security Administration chief said.
Pilots starting next year will be able to move through checkpoints with proof of their identity, said John Pistole, who leads the security agency, in an interview today in Washington. He is in talks with flight attendants about similar exemptions, he said.
“This one seemed to jump out as a common-sense issue,” Pistole said. “Why don’t we trust pilots who are literally in charge of the aircraft?”
Pilots have sought faster screening for years and intensified those efforts in recent weeks after the agency said they would be subject to body scans and pat-down searches.
“Screening airline pilots for the possession of threat objects does not enhance security,” the Air Line Pilots Association, the world’s largest crew union with 53,000 members, said in a Nov. 12 statement. “Pilots have the safety of their passengers and aircraft in their hands on every flight.”
Pilots Object
Other unions representing 14,800 pilots at AMR Corp.’s American Airlines and US Airways Group Inc. urged members to avoid body scanners, which would force the workers to get pat- downs and potentially add to logjams at security lanes.
Pistole and executives at his agency have been meeting with pilot unions and airlines in recent weeks in anticipation of today’s announcement.
“We are actively exploring options,” Pistole told the Senate Homeland Security Committee Nov. 16. Given that a pilot is entrusted to operate an airplane and assume responsibility for passenger safety, “why do we have the screening for them?” he asked.
David Bates, president of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines’ 9,600 active pilots, told members in a Nov. 1 e-mail that body scanners “could be harmful to your health” by exposing them to radiation beyond what they receive from flying aircraft.
The union recommended that pilots use designated crew lines for screening where available, and otherwise decline scanner exposure and request an alternative in a private area.
The US Airline Pilots Association, which represents pilots at US Airways, gave similar advice to its members and urged pilots to make sure they have a witness to any pat-down search.
To contact the reporter for this story: John Hughes in Washington [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernie Kohn at [email protected].

"Given that a pilot is entrusted to operate an airplane and assume responsibility for passenger safety, “why do we have the screening for them?” he asked."

Ya think! What a bunch of idiots. This could have been said on 9/12/01. They didn't suddenly see the light of logic here (which has existed since Kittie Hawk). They saw the collapse of the TSA checkpoint if passengers followed the example of 100,000 pilot refusing the AIT. Thankfully this chapter is almost over.

 

[Lolikoka]

The process is still whacked

So we will get out of it, but I still don't want to subject my wife and children to pornography or groping. The entire process is screwed up. I won't be taking my family on a plane until this irrational procedure is replaced with something that makes sense. Such as a rational determination that certain reasonably identifiable gender and ethnicity and behavioral traits give rise to a reasonable suspicion. El Al does it; police detectives do it. Why can't the TSA? It's not "profiling" so much as it is intelligence based threat assessment.

 

[LongBeachTrijet]

"Given that a pilot is entrusted to operate an airplane and assume responsibility for passenger safety, “why do we have the screening for them?” he asked."

They will exempt pilots until another Auburn Calloway tries to bring down an airplane by taking out the pilots with a hammer and spear gun.

 

[Dizel8]

My bad!

 

[Dornier 335]

They will exempt pilots until another Auburn Calloway tries to bring down an airplane by taking out the pilots with a hammer and spear gun.

I really dread that day. What are they then going to do? Make us take a psychological evaluation each time before we go to work?