Originally Posted by chollie

From my vantage point as a pax, no one should be going in my bag without my knowledge and in my sight. It is an opportunity for theft and there is no justification for it happening at any time.

Twice I've had a TSO attempt to search my bag without my knowledge during a grope and the only reason I found out was because the bag was locked.

At PHX T2, a supervisor told me that TSA SOP does not require you to be notified of a bag search, nor does it require the search to be conducted where you can watch. The supervisor also told me that this is true not only at the checkpoint but anywhere in the sterile area or onboard the plane.