Airport Security

[ITPjohn]

I saw this on CNN.com tonight and thought that I'd share it with ADers.
I couldn't believe what I was reading. Let's be careful out there.

Mods: I wasn't sure if this was right place to post. Please move to 'Travel & Leisure' if that is more appropriate.

Airport screener misses butcher knife in purse

NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) -- A security screener at Newark Liberty International Airport failed to spot a butcher knife in a passenger's pocketbook and was removed from the post for retraining, officials said.

Katrina Bell, 27, had cleared security and was waiting with her sister to board a flight on Saturday morning when she discovered she was carrying a knife.

Bell had put the knife in her bag "just in case" before going on a blind date earlier that week, her sister and travel companion, Tikisha Bell Gowens, 30, said in The Sunday Star-Ledger of Newark.

"She said to me, 'Oh my God, I have this butcher knife in my pocketbook,"' Bell Gowens said. "My first thought was, 'They're going to think we're terrorists."'

The North Carolina women immediately told airport personnel, who summoned police and officials of the Transportation Security Administration, which employs the screeners.

The women were not charged.

The screener was removed from the checkpoint and will undergo remedial training, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said.

"The knife was in a cluttered handbag," Davis said. "It was characterized to me as difficult to detect."

The incident was only the latest embarrassment for screeners at one of the airports from which some of the September 11, 2001, hijackers took off.

In December, baggage screeners at the airport lost a fake bomb planted in luggage by a supervisor during a training exercise. Despite an hours-long search, the fake bomb made it onto an Amsterdam-bound flight.

Two security supervisors were fired after the incident.

On Saturday, officials asked Bell to go through security again with the knife in her pocketbook. It was discovered during the second check.

"Suppose someone else had this knife and their motive was to hijack the plane?" Bell Gowens said. "Come on, now. We had a butcher knife. How do you miss that? How many years do you need to get this right?"

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Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

[FeistyChick]

I saw this on CNN.com tonight and thought that I'd share it with ADers.
I couldn't believe what I was reading. Let's be careful out there.

Mods: I wasn't sure if this was right place to post. Please move to 'Travel & Leisure' if that is more appropriate.

Airport screener misses butcher knife in purse

NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) -- A security screener at Newark Liberty International Airport failed to spot a butcher knife in a passenger's pocketbook and was removed from the post for retraining, officials said.

Katrina Bell, 27, had cleared security and was waiting with her sister to board a flight on Saturday morning when she discovered she was carrying a knife.

Bell had put the knife in her bag "just in case" before going on a blind date earlier that week, her sister and travel companion, Tikisha Bell Gowens, 30, said in The Sunday Star-Ledger of Newark.

"She said to me, 'Oh my God, I have this butcher knife in my pocketbook,"' Bell Gowens said. "My first thought was, 'They're going to think we're terrorists."'

The North Carolina women immediately told airport personnel, who summoned police and officials of the Transportation Security Administration, which employs the screeners.

The women were not charged.

The screener was removed from the checkpoint and will undergo remedial training, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said.

"The knife was in a cluttered handbag," Davis said. "It was characterized to me as difficult to detect."

The incident was only the latest embarrassment for screeners at one of the airports from which some of the September 11, 2001, hijackers took off.

In December, baggage screeners at the airport lost a fake bomb planted in luggage by a supervisor during a training exercise. Despite an hours-long search, the fake bomb made it onto an Amsterdam-bound flight.

Two security supervisors were fired after the incident.

On Saturday, officials asked Bell to go through security again with the knife in her pocketbook. It was discovered during the second check.

"Suppose someone else had this knife and their motive was to hijack the plane?" Bell Gowens said. "Come on, now. We had a butcher knife. How do you miss that? How many years do you need to get this right?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

i had the similar incident happen to me when i went to china.. you guys are gonna your asses off..

i took a fork, knife and a spoon with me cuz i was told that the chinese people had NO SILVERWARE and that everything was eaten with chopsticks or fingers.. sheesh.. me.. i didn't put my silverware in my suitcase.. i put them in with my toileteries (sp?) i was screened and they found my silverware ... they said it was dangerous and that i had to discard them cuz i could stap someone with a fork and a butter knife!? :-o sheesh!! and also a friend had to throw out her small plastic nail file out as well!? sheesh!! so anyway, they made me take out my silverware and put them in a box at the claims dept to be picked up upon my return.. but they LOST THE BOX!!! IMAGINE THAT?!? (they were part of my engagement set that i got from my mom!!) SHEESH!! i was BOILING MAD back then.. but now i look back and about it..

what a lesson to learn from this experience!! :roll:

 

[PurrMeow]

Geez that really reminds me da** my dad. That got me attention.. When I flew to visit my family long time ago right after my dad had pacemaker. They took me to airport in Houston, Texas. Funny thing when ppls include me had to go through to scan u know. When we went through especially my dad. I looked at my dad. I said WTF why u did not go through to scan. He smiled back at me & said he has pacemaker and dont have to worry about scanning. I said how? He got requested by his dr to let them know that he has pacemaker. Which he does not have to go through the scan, grrr u know why I dunno like any1 scan on me as all over my body. LOL


PurrrMeow

 

[PurrMeow]

Airport screeners are more concerned with women wearing underwire bras than having butcher knives in their purses.

gaspp do i have to take my bra off before scanning? JK

PurrMeow

 

[PurrMeow]

Nah, just wear a wireless bra.

Funny thing, I wear an underwire bra (it is a Wonderbra), and I have never been beeped at the airport. However, this is only in three airports in Canada (Regina, Calgary, and Vancouver) so I cannot say the same for other airports. I also have not taken a plane to the USA since October 2000 and even then I wasn't beeped at airports in Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, and Atlanta.

Many of my girlfriends that wear underwire bras have been beeped at the airport, plus the media always reports about that where women have to go to a private room and show the security officier they are wearing an underwire bra. That is why I said airports seem to be more concerned about women wearing underwire bras than people with butcher knives in their bags because look at the fuss that happens when the beeper goes off.

I do wonder about people that have metal piercings in their nipples or genitalia and how they explain this if they are beeped at the airport. :P

Yeah I know. I was just joking. U know I dunno like any1 to scan all over me. Sheesh. LOL I dunno like any1 to scan personal, even if they did then I have to cover

PurrrMeow

 

[PurrMeow]

Oh forgot to mention that. I have been to airlines alot of times which I had to trip alot before I retired. Whew I am retire Thank God.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give me break for trip too much lmao


PurrMeow

 

[tekkmortal]

Make sure you take out your change before you go through the metal detector. Coins will get the alarm off if you take em with you when u go through the metal detector.

Also for some airports make sure you have enough time to be inspected. It can take more than a hour.

 

[The*Empress]

Yeah in DC, they found a big scissor in my bag...
And they told me I can't take that on the plane.
It wasn't even that sharp.

And Memphis airport wouldn't let my mom carried her little tweezer...

 

[downing]

LOL. wait til you hear this story.

I flew to Dallas from Washington DC at Dulles, I broke my knee, I was in crutches and wearing brace on my whole leg (couldn't put cast on due to medical reasons). My husband had to carry our oldest son who was going to turn 1 the following next month, it was Christmas holidays.

The security made me to stand up with no crutches and remove my brace.. balancing on one leg...my husband was so so so furious! The security had to scan my whole body and made me stand and put brace back on. gave me crutches,, they wouldn't offer assistance or wheelchair or even offer a chair for me to sit and put brace on. nope nope, they didn't give a shit....

when holidays were over, we had to fly back to DC, Dallas were generous enuff to let me sit on wheelchair with out taking my brace off, they just scanned me while I was sitting and let them scan my crutches...

I was embarrassed at dulles because I was holding up the whole line. grrr. :Oops: Of course, my mom heard abt this, got royally pissed off,,,yelled and yelled at Dulles, they were generous enuff to give us a nice trip back... that figures...

 

[FeistyChick]

LOL. wait til you hear this story.

I flew to Dallas from Washington DC at Dulles, I broke my knee, I was in crutches and wearing brace on my whole leg (couldn't put cast on due to medical reasons). My husband had to carry our oldest son who was going to turn 1 the following next month, it was Christmas holidays.

The security made me to stand up with no crutches and remove my brace.. balancing on one leg...my husband was so so so furious! The security had to scan my whole body and made me stand and put brace back on. gave me crutches,,they wouldn't offer assistance or wheelchair or even offer a chair for me to sit and put brace on. nope nope, they didn't give a shit ....

when holidays were over, we had to fly back to DC, Dallas were generous enuff to let me sit on wheelchair with out taking my brace off, they just scanned me while I was sitting and let them scan my crutches...

I was embarrassed at dulles because I was holding up the whole line. grrr. :Oops: Of course, my mom heard abt this, got royally pissed off,,,yelled and yelled at Dulles, they were generous enuff to give us a nice trip back... that figures...

OMG!!! what if your knee snapped out of its place or something!?!? SHEESH!! what the hell were they thinking!?!?!

 

[The*Empress]

Wow, no lighters either :sure:

Lighters Banned From Anywhere on Planes

1 minute ago U.S. National - AP


By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Starting Thursday, there is one more thing that air travelers must leave at home: lighters. Unlike guns, knives and other dangerous items that a passenger cannot carry on in his pocket but may stow in checked bags, lighters are banned from anywhere on a plane.


"It's been 3 1/2 years since 9/11 and they've finally figured it out," said Mark Peterson, a Sioux Falls, S.D., appraiser who was grabbing a smoke outside Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday.


The rule change is expected to produce a large number of seizures of lighters even though airports, airlines and the government have been telling travelers for the past 45 days about the impending ban.


"I'm sure we'll have a bunch of them," said George Doughty, executive director of Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, Pa.


Screeners from the Transportation Security Administration have been more vigilant about finding and seizing banned items than were the private screeners who worked at airports before the Sept. 11 hijackings.


Lighters have not been permitted in checked bags for at least 30 years because they might start fires in cargo holds. Congress passed a bill last year adding lighters to the list of prohibited items in the cabin.


The genesis for the ban was Richard Reid, who tried unsuccessfully to light explosives hidden in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight in 2002. He used matches. The sponsors of the ban, Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon, worried that a lighter might have worked in that kind of situation.


The ban does not include matches. Passengers still may carry aboard a plane up to four books of safety matches, which must be struck on a strip of friction to light. Not allowed on planes are strike anywhere matches, which have an extra chemical tip that allows them to be struck using any abrasive surface.


David Stempler, president of the advocacy group Air Travelers Association, said the lighter ban is long overdue. But he said matches ought to be included, too.


"The problem with the TSA on the matches is the inability to detect them," Stempler said.


Kevin Mitchell, president of the Business Travel Coalition, said the ban on lighters amounted to "silliness in the extreme."


"It only adds to consumer confusion and longer lines, and longer lines represent a security threat," Mitchell said.


Wehns Billen, who was visiting Washington from Micronesia for a conference, said he was told of the impending ban by his airline. He decided to leave his expensive lighter at home.


People can mail prohibited items, take them to their cars or give them to someone who is not traveling. Otherwise, seized items are not returned.


"The whole thing is silly," Billen said. "I wish they'd put a smoking section on the plane."


Billen may be typical of overseas travelers. They are more likely to smoke than U.S. citizens, said Steve van Beek, executive vice president of the Airports Council International, which represents airport officials.


"How are we going to notify every other passenger in the world connecting through and transiting the United States that their lighters are going to be seized?" van Beek said.

 

[tekkmortal]

Did you know that u CANNOT use cell phones or pagers on the airplane?

 

[The*Empress]

They allow matches but ban lighters...

DOH!!!!
Don't they remember that shoe bomber used matches to try to light up his shoes?

Why not ban matches too?

 

[Deafhuggy]

Did you know that u CANNOT use cell phones or pagers on the airplane?

I'm curious, do you know why they don't permit that? I know that you are not permitted to use cell phones or pagers online while in the air, but WHY, I'm wondering? I'm too lazy to do researches... heh sorry peeps!

 

[VamPyroX]

Did you know that u CANNOT use cell phones or pagers on the airplane?

I know you can't use cell phone while landing or taking off... but during mid-flight? I've never heard of that. I've seen people use pagers and cell phone on the plane many times while in mid-flight. When the plane is about to land, they tend to tell the passengers to turn off their laptops, portable games, CD players, etc.

 

[tekkmortal]

I know you can't use cell phone while landing or taking off... but during mid-flight? I've never heard of that. I've seen people use pagers and cell phone on the plane many times while in mid-flight. When the plane is about to land, they tend to tell the passengers to turn off their laptops, portable games, CD players, etc.

Here is the reason that airliners dont want passengers to use cell phones or pagers on airplane:

ATTENDANTS FEAR YAKKERS WOULD SPUR 'AIR RAGE'

By Sam Diaz, Mercury News

It seems as though there's one on every flight: the passenger who gabs into a cell phone through the boarding process and keeps chatting until the final seconds before take-off, silenced only by a flight attendant who asks that the phone be turned off.


Now, the flight attendants are doing what they can to tell the Federal Communications Commission that its proposal to lift the ban on cell phone use in the air is a bad idea.


According to a poll released Thursday by the flight attendants union, 63 percent of airline passengers oppose the idea of allowing in-flight cell phone calls, citing the disruptive noise from yakking passengers as their primary reason.


The flight attendants' union believes cell phone use would create a more stressful environment on flights, potentially leading to incidents of ``air rage.''


Some travelers share a similar sentiment. ``It would annoy me,'' said Hal Sennit of Palm Desert, who flew into Mineta San Jose International Airport with his wife, Helena, on Thursday afternoon. ``I am absolutely against it.''


But the ban was never put in place to minimize noise levels inside the plane. The FCC and the Federal Aviation Administration put the prohibition in place for safety and technological reasons.


The FCC had long been concerned that cell phone use on an airplane might interfere with cellular signals on the ground, while the FAA worries that the cellular phone traffic might interfere with the navigation and communication systems in the cockpit.


Fewer concerns


Late last year, the FCC said technological advances had reduced its concerns. And the FAA has launched a study of cell phone effects on cockpit control that is due early next year. If those concerns of interference go away, the two agencies could lift their respective bans in the next year or so.


That has flight attendants worried about the in-flight noise, which could interfere with a passenger's willingness and ability to follow safety instructions and possibly lead to ``air rage'' that they would be forced to police.


``We believe they can't consider this purely on a technological basis,'' said Pat Friend, president of the Washington-based Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which co-sponsored the poll along with the National Consumers League. ``They have to consider the implications to on-board safety and the human factors. What effect would cell phone use have on the occupants of that airplane?''


Flying already can be a stressful experience, especially since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. When passengers have disputes -- mostly surrounding the overhead compartment space for carry-on luggage -- it's the flight attendants who intervene to keep people calm, Friend said.


``We believe cell phone usage will just create an even more stressful environment and lead to more disputes,'' she said.


But that really doesn't matter much, said FAA spokesman Donn Walker.


``The federal government is not in the business of banning things based on people's preferences,'' he said. ``It is of no concern to us whether people do or don't want cell phones on planes. We prohibit them right now because of safety issues.''


He also noted that, even if the ban is lifted, individual airlines still could put their own prohibitions in place -- possibly as a selling point for those who want to travel in a peaceful, cell-free zone.


Nick Polo, a Los Angeles-area accountant who flew from Burbank to San Jose for a meeting Thursday afternoon, said he knows there are reasons that people probably need to make a call while in-flight but enjoys being able to disconnect while he's flying.

``I think people should be able to live a few hours without a cell phone,'' he said. ``I've never heard of a story where it makes much difference anyway. You have to wait until you get back on the ground to take care of things.''

But Andy Janti, who flew in from San Diego on Thursday, said it could be nice to make a call on long flights -- such as a trans-Pacific one to his native Indonesia.

`You can probably wait'

``If you're on a short flight, you can probably wait,'' he said, adding that he sometimes doesn't even open his laptop computer on short flights. ``If it's just an hour or so, I'll just rest or maybe read a book or magazine.''

The survey -- which also presented what-if scenarios if the ban is lifted -- revealed that about 80 percent of surveyed passengers worried the cell phone use would put the nation at higher risk for terrorist attacks because in-flight terrorists would be able to easily communicate with their on-the-ground counterparts.

Also, 70 percent of respondents favored sectioning off the plane for cell phone use and non-use. And 90 percent favored a requirement that cell phones be banned during safety and emergency announcements.

The survey was conducted by Lauer Research, which polled 702 frequent and occasional air passengers nationwide from March 28 to April 2. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

 

[sara1981]

before im gone to London,England when im flew at Memphis,Tenn when im enter the scanned but the security said need to getting off my shoes because my brown boots because that not tennis! i said oh Shoot! but i hates that security for sakes! later after vacation in London,England same things! i hates that but needs to removes the my brown boots but the security check my body makes sure have no knife,whatever! that makes me insane of security!

Sara Boyce