A good friend of mine just had a terrible experience at Detroit. She is a Midwesterner living on the East Coast, a highly-educated professional, attractive, usually well-dressed, and mild-mannered. She was visiting her parents and flying home. Nonstop, domestic flight. She did not have any problems with Secure Flight or watch lists.

She is a frequent flyer, and has taken the same trip many times. Her name, demeanor, accent, clothing, etc. are unmistakably American.

She is not prone to exaggeration, and doesn't usually complain about airport security. She happened to mention this to me because she knows that I fly a lot.

After uneventful check-in and ID inspection, she went to get in line for the x-ray and metal detector.

A BDO pulled her out of line, and she was taken to an interview room. She was told that her behavior "aroused suspicion" (perhaps not in those words.) The BDO and another agent conference called some TSA phone number. They asked her repeatedly about the nature of her trip, how often she'd lived at each address, the nature of her work, her father's birthdate, her mother's maiden name, and... my favorite... the last four digits of her FATHER's social security number. (She said, "How would I know that?")

She was eventually released and allowed to fly. I don't know if she had selectee screening, but I think that's probably likely.

I used to think that behavioral profiling made some sort of sense. But now I'm reconsidering. The best I can imagine is that the BDO's are new, newly trained, and want to test out their skills.

They may have actually picked her just because it would be less work: she's young, articulate, etc... so the background check would be simpler and they could act as if they're doing something. (In random screening, it's easier to pick the guy with a small bag and light clothing.)

She's not a complainer, and just wanted to get home. But I find this incident troubling. Of course I wasn't there, perhaps my friend had completely gone nuts and was acting erratically (I strongly doubt that.) There may have been a specific threat about young women traveling alone, as there was prior to Pan Am 103 (I doubt that as well... and there are a lot of women traveling alone through Detroit.)

I hope that this was a one-time incident.