Practical Travel Safety Issues - tsa agents at gate for arriving flight(?)

On Sun., 5/13, I was departing LAS on flight AA348 (scheduled to depart at 12:15pm)--Gate D11. Around 11:00 am, 3 tsa agents arrived at the gate. [Initially I thought they were going to do a gate check for my departing flight--but since the inbound hadn't even arrived, I sensed something else was in the works.] Two of the agents were watching the inbound pax exit the plane; when deplaning was complete, they departed; but I noticed the two agents made some record in their "special" book.
Since NONE of the deplaning pax were stopped--why were they there? (Maybe they had too many agents at the check-in area, and they had to keep these 3 occupied.:rolleyes:)

So what happens if TS"O"s decide to pull a Savannah and start harassing deplaning passengers? They have no authority to detain and you're already airside, so you can't just tell them to Foxtrot Oscar and continue to the airside exit or your connecting flight?

So what happens if TS"O"s decide to pull a Savannah and start harassing deplaning passengers? They have no authority to detain and you're already airside, so you can't just tell them to Foxtrot Oscar and continue to the airside exit or your connecting flight?
I thought that there might have been an incident on the arriving flight, causing tsa agents to be waiting at the gate. Yes, you are correct, only a LEO could detain a deplaning pax.

I thought that there might have been an incident on the arriving flight, causing tsa agents to be waiting at the gate. Yes, you are correct, only a LEO could detain a deplaning pax.

If there was an actual incident (violent passenger, attempted hijacking, attempted robbery/theft/assault/rape, etc.) during the flight, I'd think the following would happen:

- A passenger commits a crime while in flight. For fun, let's say a passenger sucker-punched another passenger to try to steal his iPad, at which point the perp is subdued by pax and crew and zip-tied in place. The crew call and explain the situation.

- Upon arrival at the gate, the crew ask all passengers to remain seated until their new VIP passenger is escorted off. Two LEOs board, cut the zip ties, put on the handcuffs, and escort the perp off.

I'd think that the real LEOs would want the TSA to stay as far foxtrotting away from this incident as possible, lest they try to intervene because it's a "transportation security issue".

So what happens if TS"O"s decide to pull a Savannah and start harassing deplaning passengers? They have no authority to detain and you're already airside, so you can't just tell them to Foxtrot Oscar and continue to the airside exit or your connecting flight?

TSO: "Do you want to fly today?"

"Actually, I already did."

TSO: "Then I'm going to have to ask you to leave the airport."

"That's what I'm doing."

Head explodes.

Mike

...but if you have a connecting flight, you might be in trouble. Since TS"O"s have no authority to either detain you or physically force you to do anything, what exactly _can_ they do? In the time it would take one to summon a LEO to escort you out of airside, you would already have disappeared into the crowd.

TSO: "Do you want to fly today?"

"Actually, I already did."

TSO: "Then I'm going to have to ask you to leave the airport."

"That's what I'm doing."

Head explodes.

Mike

... what exactly _can_ they do?...They could call for a terminal dump, plane dump, and rescreen everybody to indicate their petulant displeasure. Would be dumb and increase the risk to everybody queued up, but when did their procedures ever make sense in the big picture view?

They could call for a terminal dump, plane dump, and rescreen everybody to indicate their petulant displeasure. Would be dumb and increase the risk to everybody queued up, but when did their procedures ever make sense in the big picture view?

Huh...I was under the impression that the pizza-boxers didn't have the authority to order terminal/plane dumps.

I've had a theory that periodic random terminal dumps at major airports would be a great October surprise to keep the voters scared of terrorists in the run-up to an election.

I've had a theory that periodic random terminal dumps at major airports would be a great October surprise to keep the voters scared of terrorists in the run-up to an election.

Possibly. Might backfire, given that the numbers of people who see that what the TSA does is pure security theatre are climbing steadily.

And the numbers of people who see a "terminal dump" as an inconvenience rather than a security measure are growing even faster, especially for regular flyers through Newark.