Originally Posted by faflys
This is my favorite recent essay on the subject you are researching. It is written by Patrick Smith. Enjoy, and let it be known that I disagree with the above poster that this is the wrong place for you to ask your question - apparently they are just the wrong answer.
Terrorism, tweezers and terminal madness
By Patrick Smith
June 1, 2004 | On a Sunday morning I'm catching Malaysia Airlines flight MH091 from Newark to Dubai, and eventually onward to Kuala Lumpur. Newark, now cloyingly recast as Liberty International Airport, is forever the same old bowl of concrete and cars. In a cheerless restaurant in Terminal B I'm eating breakfast beneath framed pictures of sandwiches when the Malaysia crew comes promenading past, headed for their Boeing 777 at the end of the concourse -- the pilots in sharply cut, military-style suits, the stewards in green tuxedoes, the girls in sarong-style dresses of melon and teal.
At the surrounding tables are the rest of Flight 91's eventual occupants, and present company excluded it's a substantially... let's just say Eastern-looking lot -- A mix of Arab and Malay and Indian, with a liberal distribution of skullcaps and prayer beads, and a handful of women in full black burqa right down to the gloves. It's all very glammy and international here in decidedly working class Newark. I like it, even if it's probably a disconcerting sight for the throngs headed to Detroit and Charlotte, with enough dark skin and beards to keep many Americans away from airports forever and hunkered down in their xenophobic hidey-holes. And while I hate saying it, something tells me MH091 gives a thrice-weekly dose of the willies to the already edgy screeners down at security...
Where did you find the above? Do you have a link you could site?
I have flown on MH 91 from Newark to Dubai to Kuala Lumpur as well as MH 90 from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai to Newark; just a few months ago back in August.
While I was a First Class passenger on this flight, there was a good mix of ethnicities and individuals. First Class was only half-full, but the FC cabin had a great mix as well.
Screening at EWR was done by the TSA only; no national guard or special security was present.
The TSA employees working the checkpoint at EWR B were friendly and no shoe removal was required. I felt just as safe on these flights as I do on any other international flights these days. FWIW,
MH 91 / MH 90 were some of the best flights I've taken this year - primarily in terms of service and hospitality from the Malaysian Airlines crew.
FWIW, Malaysia Airlines has recently dropped the EWR-DXB-KUL service in exchange for EWR-ARN-KUL (ARN=Stockholm).
If MH 91/90 was still operating EWR-DXB-KUL, I would not hesitate to take it again. Unfortunately, Malaysia Airlines is eliminating First Class on their Boeing 777 (thus I will use LAX for my future MH flights).
When I arrived back into the states on MH 90, it was August 31st and the Republican convention was ongoing in NYC, just a few miles away. There were many US Customs Agents working this flight, the only arrival at this time of the morning. US Customs & Immigrations in Newark treated me with respect; they were polite and efficient.
I am a young white male and I am sure others received a good deal of scrutiny by US Customs/Immigrations, but I would hardly call this flight one that gives a "thrice-weekly dose of the willies to the already edgy screeners down at security..."
Now, to the original poster who started this thread: I would look for threads which have been started with news article links.
One board you may find valuable is "The Newsstand" -- there are often news articles related to security failures on that board. If you read through this board, you will find several as well connected to some of the threads.
Lately there have been several news articles about high failure rates with respect to TSA tests and one article about the Newark Airport citing statistics about how bad TSA screening is, concourse C (Continental) in particular. I would also look for articles concerning the lack of cargo screening on passenger jets. If you go to the travel section at CNN you should be able to find a number of articles as well (go to Travel News and look back at the past month or two of articles).
Best of luck!
SDF_Traveler