Too bad they don't work a little harder on 'Active Listening'.

Of course, it's hard to listen when you and your co-workers are barking loudly.

(Disclaimer: maybe it's partly the Pre lines, but I have been through a few checkpoints where the decibel level is noticeably lower. Not consistently at anyone airport, unfortunately, but greatly appreciated when it is. It's a civilian checkpoint, not a military boot camp drill field, for crying out loud).

TSA's response would be that help was available, but the vet had an obligation to make prior arrangements if he wanted to be treated with common sense and respect.

So it was his fault. :rolleyes:

The four hours of training included not forcing people who are in a wheelchair and cannot stand.... to stand.

Seriously - I am not making that up, it was in the article as one of the praiseworthy things this course taught the special TSOs.

Some of those situations are the result of ignorance - real and feigned. The TSO, in spite of his/her extensive training and in spite of regularly observing wheelchair pax at the checkpoint, doesn't understand that some people are 100% wheelchair-bound.

Or they choose to pretend they don't understand because they are willing to put the pax at risk to make life easier for themselves.

TSO to pax: "Sir/Ma'am, I need you to stand up for screening" or "Sir/Ma'am, I'll have to ask you to stand up so I can clear your wheelchair and get you on your way" or "Sir/Ma'am, you will have to get out of your wheelchair so I can screen it".

1) On paper/screen, those look like requests. Depending on the manner of the TSO, they are usually an order, sometimes a threat, generally intimidating.

2) A more appropriate request would be: "Sir/Ma'am, if you can comfortably stand up and hold your arms out at shoulder height without discomfort, it might make the screening process a little easier for both of us, but if not, we'll be fine. Whatever works best for you, no problem."

I witnessed a wheelchair passenger being screened at HNL at the HA inter-island terminal back in Nov. The pax was an older gentleman, very very frail. They made him get up out of his chair and he had to literally hang off of a table to stay upright while they checked his chair.

They weren't loud or rude, but really, there surely was another way. I kept thinking this poor man was going to keel over. His family couldn't help much either. I don't remember why one of them weren't helping him while he was hanging on for dear life, but this was one case where point 2 above would have been the way better thing to do.

Yeah, make it stop!!! Just leave him alone! TSA cannot be remove the artificial legs. Because he was injured during Iraqi Wars.

They had too many warning. It's unacceptable!!!

It can be a nightmare to handle if TSA refuses to use common sense.

Ordinarily, they'll wheel him past the scanners to grope him and search his chair. If the family has already cleared the scanners, they're not allowed to get near him until he has been searched, because he might pass them something prohibited.

They were supposed to have offered to grope him and search/swab his chair while he is in his chair. Some people are 100% wheelchair bound and are still able to be cleared to fly - it's just a bigger hassle for lazy TSOs to do the grope this way.

A close friend had a stroke a few years ago and is wheelchair bound. Every single time she flies, the groper starts with the 'lift your leg, lift your arm', even though she explains in advance that one leg and one arm are completely non-functional. :rolleyes:

I watched a wheelchair passenger get screened a few weeks ago. The mother was able-bodied and it was her son in the wheelchair. She helped lift him. She explained everything the TSO was going to do and demonstrated. The son was greatly comforted. Of course, since the mother had touched the son, she had to then be screened as well. It was actually quite reasonable. The two people were screened as a unit. The TSO was very patient and accepting. The best I could tell, he was told what how it was going to be done, and that is the way he did it. Had to bring in a female screener for the mom, but the he did the rest. Yes, it was slow and tedious. However, the screening was thorough. If they have to do it, this is the way it should be done.

If they had taken this common sense approach, more than one video of a crying child in a wheelchair unnecessarily separated from her parents would never have existed.

Better for the pax, and although TSA doesn't care about the pax, it would have been better from a PR standpoint.

Great. Flew into PHX yesterday. Disabled, though not wheelchair, and get to fly out on Friday.

And my US colleagues wonder why I really don't want to meet them on their home turf.

All eyes are on PHX after this story got out so I'm betting the Gropers will be minding their manners.

Really hoping you're right. (and I have no problem saying "so, were you the guy who made the vet take off his legs?" ... I'm not even American and I find it so incredibly offensive that anyone would give a hard time to one of your vets who lost their legs because of their military assignment).

My disability is relatively recent and I was only able to resume flying last fall. Since then I have only flown domestically or TATL, so security experiences have been with non-US airports. So far, I have been treated at worst neutrally, at best, with deference.

This is my first foray into the US since I had sworn off all US flying unless the ultimatum from my boss is "go or be fired"

It's a long drive from PHX to YYZ, but I have no problem with DY...T. I have all weekend to get home.

What's particularly interesting about this story is that this vet was traveling with a group of vets, and the two TSOs who groped him were, according to TSA, themselves vets.

TSA says the tape doesn't back up the vet's story, but they have declined to release the footage of the incident. Of course, this may be because the cameras don't cover the entire incident, meaning it is the word of TSA vs. the word of the vets.

Of course, PHX is the airport that 'lost' several minutes of tape showing what happened with Stacy Armato, too. No tape showing what happened with Yuki Miyamae either. I wonder what would happen if, next time I'm getting my grope, I ask if I can be sure I am standing where the checkpoint cameras will cover the action. After all, a responsible TSO has nothing to hide....

Perhaps another airport might put out the word to treat vets and handicapped a bit more respectfully, at least for a week or two, but given PHX's history, I wouldn't be surprised if it continues to be business as usual.

Be careful out there. Just keep avoid the scanner. Please stay away from veterans. Don't try to talk with him. He got too many trouble at work. Just ignore him.

WillCad, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? The TSA have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for at airport screening, and you curse the TSA. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That the body screening, while invasive, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.