My first airport/flying experience since 9/11...

pscates · March 4, 2003 1:36PM

This past weekend, I flew cross-country to visit a friend and was subjected to my first experience with the new airport security measures.

Holy cow, they don't mess around do they?

I ended up with my shoes off, belt off, jacket off, some guy running his gloved hand quickly over my crotch (I didn't even have to buy him a drink...), arms out, frisked in front of an entire terminal. I just KNEW the next words would be "Mr. Scates, could you please step into this room and remove all your clothing?"

I was sweating bullets.

Lunkhead that I am, I made the mistake of carrying my tiny little clippers in my shaving kit. They've been in it for years now and I've always taken them with me, but now, post-9/11, anything like that is, of course, forbidden.

So I wasn't trying to pull anything cute, I simply wasn't even thinking and I guess this set them off and they gave me the business pretty good. Went through my entire wallet, pulled everything out, went through my carry-on shoulder bag (good thing I left that 30th anniversary "Amateur Juggs in Fishnets" issue at home...).

It was just kinda funny, especially when I looked up a couple of times and saw some rather unsavory-looking individuals strolling through with barely a glance thrown their way.

So now I have to go buy some new clipper scissors.

Anyone else get pulled aside and searched a bit more vigorously than you'd anticipated since all this new airport screening stuff came into play?

drewprops · March 4, 2003 1:44PM

I always thought you were suspicious....hmmmm.

Nope, haven't flown any since 9/11 myself. Dropped off someone at the airport back in November, but didn't go through with her.

Wow.

I'm glad they're being so thorough...wish it were with EVERYONE.

thegelding · March 4, 2003 1:51PM

in baltimore, my whole family had to take off their shoes and they rubbed a small cloth across the zippers and handle of my eldest daughter's carry on and "fed" the cloth to a bomb sniffing machine...the guy semi-jokingly gave my wife a hard time because she didn't take off her shoes before walking through the machine and set it off, so he went on for a while about women not listening and such...it was better than last time...the last time i fly from BWI it was about a month after 9/11 and all the soldiers were walking around with the hugest damn rifles i had ever seen...and they looked on edge...i for sure didn't make a single joke around them...

don't know if this is lucky or not, but i haven;t had any of the search people grab my package like they did you pscates...perhaps the person thought you were cute....

g

eman · March 4, 2003 2:00PM

This all sounds like fun... I really need to go somewhere on an airplane <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />

But seriously, I'll be 16 in 14 days and I still haven't ever been on an airplane.

pscates · March 4, 2003 2:01PM

Haha. Well, it could've been one of the WOMEN at least. Can honestly say that is the first time a man has touched me there.

And I'm not looking to make it a habit either.

Not that there's anything wrong with it...

It's pretty intense. The security people, local police and some people in suits and ties (undercover?) were all in the area, so LOTS of "presence".

I do, however, appreciate it. I honestly don't know HOW anyone could get anything dangerous on board a plane now. They'd have to make it out of plastic or rubber and break it into small pieces and carry it in with several friends, a piece or two at a time and reassemble it in mid-flight in the bathroom or something, you know?

I should've been smart and remembered my little clipper scissors. The look the guy gave me when he pulled them out and held them up was pretty nasty, as if to say "just WHO do you think are are, dumbass? Do you not watch the news?"

It just went downhill from there. I just KNEW I was going to get the full "body cavity" treatment.

Ugh...

There ended up being about 4 security personnel dealing JUST with me. If you just passed by, you'd honestly think that I'd been caught with two grenades, a package of box-cutters, a Bowie knife and a Glock. I was so tempted to say something, but that smart, reserved part of me (that comes out only 7 or 8 times a year) magically made an appearance and convinced me to keep my piehole shut for once.

thegelding · March 4, 2003 2:07PM

ha, smart move...jokes go over very badly at the airport...

hey pscates, aren't you from San Fran ("the city" as it was called when i lived in berkeley in 1970 and 1971...or at least that is what we wrote on our cardboard when we "hitched" from berkeley to san francisco...this was pre-BART...maybe it was 71 and 72 as i remember riding bart once or twice when it was first finished)??? maybe the guy just thought you would like it...ha....

sorry you had to go through that....but glad they are doing it...and thankfully they lock the cockpit doors now (though i often went up front when i flew as a kid...but those days are gone)...

hey EbOy, i was flying at about 2 across country...back in those days me and my brother (20 months older) flew alone a few times...that is just crazy...and 2 and 4 year old flying from la to florida by themselves...dang those were different times....g

[ 03-04-2003: Message edited by: thegelding ]</p>

willoughby · March 4, 2003 2:11PM

Amount of time before this thread degrades into a debate about racial profiling ...5...4...3..2

j/k

But seriously, I've flown 3 times since 9/11 and every single time I had to take my shoes and belt off. Didn't make me feel any safer though <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />

drewprops · March 4, 2003 2:13PM

Man I tell you, they're profiling MAC USERS!

Gah!

thegelding · March 4, 2003 2:15PM

pscates is as white as they come...except for a few albinos i've met...no racial profiling there...ps is very much a honkey.

...

g

pscates · March 4, 2003 2:22PM

No, no "racial profiling" aspect to this at all, Willoughby.

I'm white as they come and I, along with others of other races, genders and ages were getting some similar treatment (not to the exact EXTENT I was, however...).

But just as many people of all types cruised through with no problems. My little clipper scissors in my shaving kit are what triggered my woes.

And I take full responsibility for being careless enough to not remember to leave them at home.

If anyone did or had anything the LEAST bit questionable, they got the routine also. There was a young black lady beside me and she had her boots off, arms raised, etc. She'd had a belly button ring that set off the detector.

She had to pull her sweater up and show it to the inspector, so I had a LITTLE bit of viewing pleasure for my troubles. But she was dealt with quickly. I was there for 5-10 minutes, with more people coming my way and talking amongst themselves and looking back over to me like they were trying to figure out exactly how far to take things.

I saw people who looked Middle Eastern BOTH get stopped and extensively searched AND let go right through, so there was no racial or ethnic thing going on.

willoughby · March 4, 2003 2:45PM

Its white oppression! The MAN's keepin you down!

The first 2 times my belt set off the metal detector which made them search me. So I wised up the last time we flew and I went without a belt. Yet, I STILL got pulled to the side and had to take my shoes off! I guess they do random searches too?

No..wait...drewprops was right. They're profiling Mac Users!!!

randycat99 · March 4, 2003 3:57PM

I flew out of LAX only a little over 1 month after 9/11. The security I encountered wasn't really that intrusive when I went through that time. What was really scary was our group was talking to each other in the staging area next to the big windows overlooking the parked planes, and then we heard/felt this big boom/shudder. I cannot tell you how sharply my head snapped to look to the side (in the apparent direction of the noise). We all immediately assumed a dire threat in progress. Turns out some cherry-picker sort of vehicle just bumped into an overpass area of the airport structure that was evidently too low for the vehicle. That was a weird, weird moment of reckoning.

There was also this other time only a few weeks after 9/11 when I was waiting for a departure from Knoxville, TN. No big action, but the armed military guards were quite impressive. With the big a$$ assault rifles, they looked quite ready to lay down some whoop-ass quite decisively.

xionja · March 4, 2003 4:07PM

up here in good ol' upstate we was aloud to take a metal knife in on the airplane, good country folks, we do good by them rules. . .

alcimedes · March 4, 2003 4:11PM

i got checked over big time last time i flew, but i also checked some handguns and ammunition, so i was kind of expecting that.

the ticket lady (when i checked them in) took my ticket back and marked it differently. i was glad i had on socks w/o holes in them.

the rest of that trip i was checked at every single gate. even when i'd just gotten off a plane and was getting ready to board the connecting flight.

brussell · March 4, 2003 4:28PM

I flew to LA recently, and it was the day after we went to code magenta (or whatever it was that we were on for a few weeks there). They stopped and searched our car going into the airport, my friend had trace chemicals of some bomb-making substance found in his suitcase <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> and the hand-metal-detector went off on my shoe <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> . None of it seemed to bother any of them, though, and we got through pretty quickly.

pscates · March 4, 2003 5:39PM

One of the reasons they got after me too was that the metal pins and plates in my left ankle set their thing off too. I had my shoes off, pants pulled up and they were still getting an alarm off their handheld scanner in the vicinity of my ankle.

Here's what is maddening: I volunteered - from the start - that I'd broken my ankle severely about five years ago and have a lot of hardware in there now and, in the past, I've often set off metal detectors.

So, of course, I do again. When they had my shoes off and all, they were getting a bit antsy and stern when they couldn't figure out what it was. Finally, I pulled my sock down, showed them the two large scars on either side of my foot (broke my ankle in three spots, essentially shattering it all the way through, requiring MAJOR surgery, reconstruction, etc.) and told the guy "wave that wand over the scar!".

He did and after doing it again in the presence of another inspector finally said "okay...thanks".

<img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />

I mean, I guess I could've had a weapon smuggled inside my skin or something?

applenut · March 4, 2003 5:53PM

ive flown lets see.....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.... 6 times. so 3 round trips since june 2002. one round trip to oakland. the other 2 to LA (actually long beach)

JFK security was piece of cake first 2 trips. 3rd one, when I was running VERY late and fearing i was gonna miss my flight was stricter. shoes off, belt, sit down, pat down, blah blah

the first trip back from la at long beach airport... jeez, took about an hour to go through security. it was ridiculous. asked me about every item.

tmp · March 4, 2003 6:21PM

I got stung at Long Beach too, on a flight to New York. They had me take off my shoes and went through everything in my bag. No big deal, but it was funny they chose the whitest person in the room to do it to.

applenut · March 4, 2003 6:22PM

[quote]Originally posted by tmp:

<strong>I got stung at Long Beach too, on a flight to New York. They had me take off my shoes and went through everything in my bag. No big deal, but it was funny they chose the whitest person in the room to do it to.</strong><hr></blockquote>

yes, exact same thing here.... errrrrrrr

eugene · March 4, 2003 7:29PM

That's strange because my airport security experiences haven't been much different on the whole. The wait times are longer, but that's about it. I've never been taken aside and frisked like pscates, or had any articles of clothing asked to be removed. I've never even been asked to open my luggage.

Oh, there was that guy with contraband sniffing beagle at the baggage claim. Heh.

colanderofdeath · March 4, 2003 7:36PM

I always get frisked and my shoes set off the metal detector and wand and then have to be X Rayed. But it isn't a big deal, they do their thing, it turns out OK and I'm on my way. Don't really take that long and it aint that bad. I just have to remember to take my Micra and my Swiss Army Knife off my keychain before I leave or else I'd have to give them up which would not be good.

My first airport/flying experience since 9/11...

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