Originally Posted by
yostwl
Yes, security services do this in many countries around the world--as far back as 1971 I was thoroughly patted down every time I flew out of South Korea. Leaving Madrid last year, we went through regular security with the usual machines and I was selected for a patdown and shoe inspection. Then when we got to the gate area, there was a second security line where we had to totally empty all of our carryon items and spread them out onto a table for inspection, and we all had another thorough patdown.
These inspections turn up thousands of real weapons every year--guns, knives (I mean real blades, not your Swiss Army knife), nunchuks, brass knuckles, blackjacks--you name it and they've confiscated it.
Do they catch everything? Of course not, there are just too many passengers to screen to be 100% effective--but they do find a lot, and that is fine with me.
Please. 'Security services in many countries around the world'? You are posting on a site with many frequent flyers. I have travelled extensively and I have never encountered the US brand of security anywhere else. I have seen 'extra' nonsense added on at the US behest at
some airports on US-bound flights - not because the country feels their security is lacking, but to accommodate US requirements. I have never encountered the TSA level of rudeness, unprofessional behavior, and idiocy anywhere else. I have encountered a similar (or worse) level of theft from baggage. And it would be interesting to compare your experience in South Korea in 1971 with a more current report of security procedures in that country. Certainly I experienced nothing like it in 2007.
If the gate check of carryon turns up 'thousands of real weapons', then the initial checkpoint screening has been a farce.
This thread is about hair and face inspections (and collars, including t-shirt collars) have been added in. Can you point to any source that states that 'thousands of real weapons' of the type you list (or even one) have been found in hair, on someone's face or in a t-shirt collar?
Please don't go all 'James Bond' here. As an earlier poster pointed out, if hair and face and t-shirt collars have to be inspected as potential 'threat matrices', then children should not be getting off with a modified patdown. We have heard repeatedly that the bad guys will stop at nothing, including using innocent women and children. We've also all seen James Bond movies (and read or heard of real life accounts) of the things that can be concealed in a fake tooth or dental plate or body cavity. Why aren't we inspecting them, at least randomly?