Practical Travel Safety Issues - Unisex Security Check OSL?

Hi Folks,

i was going through OSL security this morning and was selected for an additional pat down. The procedure itself was performed very thoroughly by a young Norwegian woman (I am male). The whole nine yards, full body pat down, feeling behind my belt with bare hands etc. To make it clear I did not feel molested in any way, however it did feel kind of weird. I think I would definitely have some objections to my wife being handled this way by a male screener.

I have never noticed this kind of setup before, usually there is a number of male and female staffers behind the metal detector and additional screening is performed by someone of your own sex. This morning there was 1 woman and 1 man, handling everyone regardless of their respective sex.

Again, I am mainly asking out of curiosity. Is this normal for OSL? I have never seen anything like it anywhere in the world and can think of a lot of places where a male patting down a female would definitely start serious commotion.

I don't know about OSL. However, when I was in China a few years ago, they had female screeners doing patdowns on every line, for evry flight.

both DME and SVO are stuffed almost exclusively by women on scanner posts - every time i opt out, I am patted down by woman.

If there's no genital contact, it's not a big issue, particularly if it's females doing the check.

TSA officially does not guarantee same-gender gropes, although oddly enough, at one small station recently, they declined to allow a pax to even go through the scanner without a same gender TSO present (she might not have alarmed). Pax was forced to miss her flight.

I think there was a little more to the story of the woman that missed here flight; for one she had left the terminal when a flight was delayed, which IMO was a bad idea.

TSA employees here have acknowledged there is a problem recruiting and retaining enough female screeners, and that will only get worse as the job market improves. That this is not an issue in other countries is interesting.

I think there was a little more to the story of the woman that missed here flight; for one she had left the terminal when a flight was delayed, which IMO was a bad idea.

TSA employees here have acknowledged there is a problem recruiting and retaining enough female screeners, and that will only get worse as the job market improves. That this is not an issue in other countries is interesting.

The woman who missed her flight was told by the TSOs still on duty that she could not attempt the scan without a female TSO present. She was also told that she could not sign a waiver to allow a male grope. She was told that if she had been a male, she would have been allowed to pass.

Unless she had just been 'randomly selected' for a mandatory grope, there was no reason to assume that she would alarm the scanner and require a grope.

TSOs posting on this forum in the past have made it clear that, while unlikely except at small airports in unusual circumstances, TSA does not guarantee a same gender grope and it is possible that in rare circumstances (such as this one) that a pax will have to make a choice between opposite-gender grope or a missed flight.

A TSO trainer posting on this forum also noted that although grope training included TSOs practicing on each other, this was not true for opposite gender gropes - that training did not involve any hands-on training.

Perhaps it is the nature of the grope - I have never experienced genital contact or hands inside my clothing when being patted down outside the US. I have been 'patted' down, but never rubbed, chopped or groped. I would be comfortable performing the kind of patdowns I have experienced outside the US. I would never perform the TSA-mandated gropes (I actually considered working for the TSA at one time, but not after the gropes were introduced).

If there's no genital contact, it's not a big issue, particularly if it's females doing the check.

Sexist much?

Sexist much?

Just a cultural fact, whether or not I or anyone else likes it, and I have seen similar attitudes (airport and non-airport) around the world.

It's evidenced in so many ways. Guys joke about asking for an opposite gender grope; women - not so much, although I'm sure there are a few who joke about asking for a hot male TSO grope. Male TSOs seem to 'randomly' assign 'hot' females for scanning and groping (see the video of two overweight male TSO jerks standing and watching J-Lo get her grope) - we don't get reports of hot young men being singled out for the scan and grope or see video clips of hot young male pax being groped while female TSOs stand and watch.

Anecdotally, I don't know a single co-worker, friend or family member (male) who would object to being groped by a male. For a variety of reasons, the women I know would strenuously object (or refuse) a grope by a male. That's an admittedly small, unscientific survey - perhaps you and your cirlce of friends and family reflect something significantly different.

OSL's websites says:

"If you wish the search to be carried out by a person of your own gender, please inform the security officer."

http://www.osl.no/en/osl/baggageandcheckin/30_Security/X_Security_Checkpoint/


I am guessing that Europeans are less concerned with these gender issues than Americans are, so they figure that providing this option is sufficient. Similarly, Europe also has more co-ed hostel rooms and nude beaches than the US.

If there's no genital contact, it's not a big issue, particularly if it's females doing the check.

TSA officially does not guarantee same-gender gropes, although oddly enough, at one small station recently, they declined to allow a pax to even go through the scanner without a same gender TSO present (she might not have alarmed). Pax was forced to miss her flight.

No. That's what she *SAID*. She simply missed her flight by being outside smoking when it boarded. The gate was closed by the time she was at security.

No. That's what she *SAID*. She simply missed her flight by being outside smoking when it boarded. The gate was closed by the time she was at security.

http://blog.tsa.gov/2012/02/importance-of-getting-to-gate-early.html

Yes, of course, she completely lied. Made the whole story up. Happens all the time (pax making stories up). Would never happen that a small, not-media-savvy checkpoint would make some ill-advised comments that would later have to be judiciously 'overlooked' later. TSA chose not to directly address what the pax related about the conversation - why is that?

However, I'm inclined to believe her, in part because Blogdad Bob's own post doesn't make sense.

Supposedly, the airline and TSA have both made final boarding calls and the airline has told TSA no more pax will be allowed to board. TSA sends the only female agent home.

Pax arrives at checkpoint. Wouldn't you expect TSA to say 'Boarding is closed, the airline will not load you, the checkpoint is closed'? Instead, according to Bob, at this point they offer to recall a female TSO. ???? Why? Even if the female TSO is still in the parking lot, 2 minutes away, TSA has supposedly closed the checkpoint at the airline's direction because boarding is closed and no pax will be allowed to board.

Further, since Blogger Bob had already made it clear that opposite sex patdowns might be the only option on rare occasions, why would the TSOs at the checkpoint offer to recall the female TSO when they were perfectly capable of screening and even patting down the pax, if need be?

OSL's websites says:

"If you wish the search to be carried out by a person of your own gender, please inform the security officer."

http://www.osl.no/en/osl/baggageandcheckin/30_Security/X_Security_Checkpoint/


I am guessing that Europeans are less concerned with these gender issues than Americans are, so they figure that providing this option is sufficient. Similarly, Europe also has more co-ed hostel rooms and nude beaches than the US.

Thank you. I just assumed they would try to match genders when possible to avoid problems, in my case for example there was an idle male screener who instead checked the girl behind me.

Thank you. I just assumed they would try to match genders when possible to avoid problems, in my case for example there was an idle male screener who instead checked the girl behind me.

At OSL, often as it is at ARN and CPH, checks of passengers' bodies (if the passenger alarms) is more commonly performed by same-sex-as-passenger screeners than by opposite-sex screeners. If men want an opposite-sex screener doing their rub down, then note that alarming the WTMDs comes with higher chances of this at OSL than at CPH, with CPH having higher chances of this than ARN. If women want an opposite-sex rub down, it's generally considered far easier to arrange that than going to an airport and alarming a WTMD.

there was an idle male screener who instead checked the girl behind me.

Thus proving the old adage: "Idle hands are the devil's play things".

Different sex pat downs occur regularly in most Scandinavian airports. Was surprised the first time it happened to me but down think about it any more.

You are correct. See alot of females cleaning male restrooms over there, even as they are being used. Just a different mindset.

I am guessing that Europeans are less concerned with these gender issues than Americans are, so they figure that providing this option is sufficient. Similarly, Europe also has more co-ed hostel rooms and nude beaches than the US.