Originally Posted by
Loren Pechtel
We are complaining because the procedure makes no sense.
ETD alarm = grope somebody makes no sense at all, yet that's the way it seems to work.
We have run into this once--ETD (contaminated patch, they couldn't get a reaction from anything in it) on my wife's rollaboard. We had already identified it as hers and it contained some clearly feminine things. Yet we were asked who was to get the grope.
Either check the person whose bag it is or check everyone if the ownership isn't clear. Don't check a volunteer, that makes the whole thing worthless.
I've seen people volunteer to be the proverbial fall-guy who takes one for the gipper and allows themselves to be touched in place of another. The TSA accepts this stuff. The clownish nature of the show in the name of security would be less evident if the TSA didn't have this kind of approach. That said, I've seen somewhat akin ridiculousness at some UK and Canadian airport screening checkpoints.