Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
I would much rather have people's hair touched than risk explosives being carried on board under a wig/turban/other head covering.
Can someone please explain how else you check these places without touching them?
No 'intimacy issue' is worth an explosive decompression at 35,000 feet, or death.
It's irrelevant whether they have caught someone or not yet. We don't know when the first incident will happen.
Perhaps the solution is to have a two tiered system. Planes with security, and planes without. I know which one I'd rather be on. And i know which one would make the more likely target for someone wishing to bring the plane down.
I don't get the need to stroke someone's face though. I would still like to see the written links that the OP mentioned to see the circumstances under which this happened.
Dogs have been used successfully in many other law enforcement situations. They can smell money, they pick up on contraband food, they can smell drugs, they can smell bombs, and they can be trained to pick up on behaviors found in certain types of criminals. They would be cheaper to maintain, and would be far more effective.
We need to demand accountability by Congress -- who OWNS these machines? Who is making money off them? (Hint - several of our elected officials have stock in the company that makes and distributes them.) We need to demand accountability on the radiation, not just for us who fly frequently, but also for the people working there. I watched a pregnant woman standing next to one for apparently her entire shift. THAT won't play out well on that little unborn baby. And we need to ask for the alternative -- dogs. There are enough dogs that were trained in the Middle east that they could - far more cheaply - reassign to the states. Instead, they put those dogs to sleep and install another hideous machine.
Can we get enough people to write letters to demand this? It seems like a viable option... Hmmm. Let's see: cost of dog food, training, and shelter versus cost of thousands of lawsuits after a year or two of this nonsense.