Originally Posted by
FWAAA
Exempting crewmembers from the same screening forced upon mere mortals (paying customers/passengers) is lunacy, and this incident clearly demonstrates why. Same with the other incidents where crewmembers took weapons or other prohibited items onboard.
It's not a sterile area if large numbers of people are exempt.
Background checks, fingerprints and decades of lawful behaviour prove nothing about the propensity of a person to bring weapons into the sterile area. Or worse, act as unknowing mules.
If the screening techniques are too invasive, too inconvenient or too time consuming, the answer is to change those techniques for everyone at the airport, not give flight attendants free passes.
I sort of understood giving pilots a pass - they don't need weapons to take down a plane.
I sort of understood giving pilots and FAs a pass on the NoS (BSX) because even though the BSX allegedly doesn't subject you to any more radiation than a cell phone or your flight, somehow that wasn't safe enough for pilots and FAs (tough luck for frequent flyers, some of whom probably spend more time in the air than flight crews).
I don't understand giving flight crew a complete pass on bag and body searches based on a background check (probably not much different than what GE pax undergo). I suppose it is conceivable that a properly armed FA could take the flight down - cockpit door opens for pilot to use the toilet, FA starts firing. The assumption seems to be the same flawed assumption that was behind 9-11 - the belief that the bad guys want to safely land the plane somewhere. We know that isn't necessarily true.
IMHO, FAs should not get treated any differently than GE pax (which should be the default standard for all pax, IMHO).