GUWonder

Ban all human passengers on flights?

Even explosives inside the human body are detectable.

camera_pro

Canarsie

Then how do I manage to get seated aboard an airplane near fellow passengers whose flatulence issues seem to be excessive?

notquiteaff

Given that there doesn't appear to be a broad standard for trusted traveler programs, why would the EU agree to let US trusted travelers carry stuff on and their own citizens generally wouldn't be allowed?

rickg523

I asked this question before (on one of the threads discussing this subject). Consensus to which I agree is while technically that would be allowable in the cabin, the run of the mill TSO is going to see a camera and a camera is a camera, so into the hold it goes.

GUWonder

The TSA isn't effectively screening for that either. And they haven't banned beans.

artemis

That's already happened once, in the form of a rectum bomb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgic...plosive_device

I think in general that surgery (which is what would be needed to implant a truly effective bomb) is too complicated and expensive for the average terrorist cell to resort to, fortunately. A suitcase bomb or a suicide vest is simpler and more effective.

Do you really think the security goons are going to be able to tell a manual film camera from a digital one? Your Leica camera body will go into the hold, where it will probably be stolen.

(That they are even considering extending the ban to cameras at all shows how thoughtless the whole idea is. Has even a single camera bomb in which the camera also remained functional as a camera been reported? And plenty of objects with larger void spaces will remain legal to bring onboard.)

camera_pro

That would be my fear - that I am subservient to the whims of whichever TSA agent I encounter :-)

nrgiii

The same reasons the EU would go along with any of this nonsense. Because they like having direct flights from Europe to the US.

Perhaps they would go along if pax who pass the ESTA process were also exempted? I have no idea if the checks done by ESTA are equivalent to the checks to get Nexus/GE. If the ESTA/Nexus/GE checks are not sufficient to keep bad guys off airplanes then why have them at all?

ashill

The Onion beat you to that joke by 15 years.

Boggie Dog

That's interesting. Have never heard that before. Will do some digging and see if I can find out if something has changed.

gooselee

Yes. Foreign governments/security/airports might be coerced into enforcing a foolish ban, but they aren't going to sign up to deal with differentiating based on programs they don't control or manage at all.

+1 - I have unfortunately had to fly with near-explosive gut movements before. The GA seemed very surprised when I requested to change my seat to an aisle in the last row (immediately adjacent to the lav).

+1. I have exactly zero faith or expectation in a TSO being able to look at a camera and determine whether it qualifies as "electronics" or not. They're trained to treat bottles of water as threatening items. If a complete ban goes through, pretty much anything that has a button (mechanical or virtual) is going to get treated like it might could be a nyoocyoolur dirty shoe bomb.

ashill

Try explaining it to fellow passengers. Trusted travelers take out their laptops/tablets in flight, fellow passenger "knows" those aren't allowed on board, screams "terrorist", nastiness ensues. Not to mention the (somewhat legitimate, I think) firestorm it would create in terms of public reaction with charges of elitism, again somewhat legitimate: you have to pay the government $50/$85/$100 and submit to a background check to be able to bring a large electronic device on?

Even assuming arguendo that allowing trusted travelers to carry on laptops when others couldn't would be fine from a pure safety and security standpoint, those perception challenges are real and hard to get around. Pre-check doesn't allow customers to bring different items on board than non-pre-check customers; it just changes the screening procedures. For good practical reasons.

nrgiii

Except that trusted travelers already get special treatment (special kiosks, lines, etc) at customs and immigration.

notquiteaff

And the US doesn't like having direct flights from the US to Europe? That doesn't make sense.

Maybe the EU will issue their own version of a trusted traveler card and then the question is, will DHS accept those? But the problem is that it's not just EU + US -- there are many additional countries. None of this is going to be sorted out this week. Or this year.

The problem they really need to fix is that of airline, airport and security workers having unsecured access to baggage. The same person who steals that camera could presumably also put something nefarious in its place. And they wouldn't even have to be on the plane when the bomb goes off.