I didn't catch the exact wording, thus the indirect quote, so it could have been "safety" in place of "security" -- but they were making a big fuss about the security sweep at the time.

Perhaps it is routine for the first flight of the day per Global_Hi_Flyer, but it's just done as a matter of routine and nothing is said about it.

I could see it being part of an AM first flight checklist, but why make a big issue out of that being the cause of a delay. Was the delay because of the "security sweep" or was it really because the pilot, crew, or whoever is responsible for said sweep on first flight of the AM was late? I arrived into ATL at an adjacent gate and the aircraft was at the gate over 90 minutes prior to departure.

I'm personally sick of excuses where "security" is used. I recently had a GA pull the security card when I asked about a delayed flight due to late inbound; I asked where is the late inbound arriving from .. "Sorry, can't tell you, security reasons".

I finally did find the info on an arrival board, went to flightaware & the inbound hadn't even departed the origin city.

End of rant

SDF_Traveler