Give me a break! Have you not heard of "soverign immunity?"

As I usually travel alone, I don't have a buddy to help guard the goods. I put my real valuable wallet contents into the inside, zipper pocket of my Travel Smith jacket. I have a few dollars in my wallet. I'm a tall guy. I can see what's going on ahead of me. Frequently, I don't like it at all.

At DFW the screamers (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose) are now tyrants. One woman had all of her personal items in Zip Loc bags. A male screamer took out her underwear and went through it with his fingers. Held up her bras! She nearly died of embarrassment. She had clean underwear BEFORE he did this. He also opened all of her make up.

The same guy tried this with me and I gave him my best teachers' evil eye. He backed off. Left my underwear alone.

That's what we deserve when the lowest bidder supplies stuff. Remember, the FAA is on the Airlines side...not ours (until the **** hits the fan)

Actually, with the sensativity turned up, the magnetic strips on credit cards can set off the detector.

[This message has been edited by mikey1003 (edited 11-10-2001).]

Must be an Argenbright screamer that they didnt do a background check to find that he did time as a sexual predator http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I am not buying this. I have all my credit cards in my pocket, and not protected by a wallet. After probably a dozen flights since 9/11, no problems. Other than looking at all the baskets with wallets in them and people climbing all over each other to get to theirs.

Spyderco makes so-called credit card knives.

A word of advice -- don't believe anything the screeners tell you. (i.e. If they tell you the earth is a sphere, you should probably join the Flat Earth Society.)

Both the walk-through devices and the wands use the same technology. The wand is just "up close and personal" -- it can be used to localize metal objects.

But neither will damage mag-stripes, as neither has anything to do with magnetism. (Well, OK, maybe in a Grand Unified Theory sort of way, but not for our purposes.) If these were magnetic type devices then they wouldn't detect aluminum, right? And you can certainly make as nasty a knife with aluminum as with any other ferrous metal.

X-ray machines do pose a very slight risk to magnetic media, such as credit card mag stripes or floppy disks. However, it has nothing to do with the x-rays. Rather it has to do with the massive power supply transformers (that do generate a wallop of magnetic flux) required to generate those x-rays. But I have about 15 cards with mag strips that go through x-ray 5-10 times a week for years, with never a problem. A "theoretical" issue, I suppose. See above. The mag stripes will not set off the metal detectors. Some credit cards have metal foils which under labratory conditions might be able to be detected. But if a detector was that sensitive, then anyone with a metal filling would set off every detector in the airport. Even I don't set off the walk-through units, and I have a huge chunk of metal in my right hip (not to mention several screws and even part of a broken drill bit. The only thing that will "shield" metal is more metal, which of course would be even easier to detect. Coats, hands, wallets etc will have no effect on the walk-through units, and will only affect wands if they are so thick has to prevent the wand from being suitably close. As are all persons named Ken. It's a genetic thing. See above.

In the decades before September 11, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of airline hijackings. Most were not hijacked by religious fundamentalist terrorists, and very, very few resulted in any violence. Four related hijackings on a single day probably aren't going to change that, other than if increased security or the perception thereof stops a depressed immigrant, possibly with mental health or drug or whatever problems, wants to "go home" and sees an airplane hijacking as the best way to get there.

The probability of a repeat performance is no higher now than it was on September 10, and is probably lower with heightened security activity and awareness, and increased law enforcement activity. As well, the element of surprise is gone.

But the next time there's a hijacking it might be a huge mistake to presume that the plane will be diverted into a building. It's not inconceivable that more people with be injured or killed if the crew and/or passengers over react.

But each person will have to carefully evalute the situation, should the occasion ever arise.

What happens when a man has a foil wrapped personal item in his wallet? Do they make him open it? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Why would you carry chewing gum in your wallet? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I really wonder if the dimwits that work in security would recognize that round impression in a man's wallet for what it is? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Rssrsvp (edited 11-12-2001).]

Things could go from very unpleasant to downright awry if those dimwits asked you to validate its use equivalent to "turning it on..."

No, but I was asked "What is this?" by some bright spark woman at the wonderful airport in St.Thomas, VI. I explained and her face turned a bright shade of red. I would think that they had sex-ed in the schools down there?

Of course, this is the same airport that made me show my passport in order to purchase a copy of "Airways" magazine at the news vendor there, so I guess that the stupidity was not restricted to the security checkpoint.

That's exactly right. How else could "Security" allow a guy with seven knives, a stun-gun, and Mace through the detectors at ORD? I find this "enhanced" level of security just another inconvenience that has to be dealt with.

I flew through SFO and LAX last week, and something in my shoes set off the metal detectors. I had to run my shoes through separately, that is, after the security personnel debated whether it would be OK for me to go back through the metal detector to put my shoes through the x-ray machine.


You have to remeber, the gov't and airlines have to be seen to be doing something. Doesn't matter if it's the wrong thing or not. This isn't about security, it's about perception of security.

Regards,
-Bouncer- [/B][/QUOTE]

for Ken hAAmer: How could one, with full knowledge of what happened 9/11, 'carefully evaluate' the circumstances if a U.S. flight that one is travelling upon is hijacked?? How does one do that when someone pulls out a gun (or other threatening weapon) and announces a takeover of the plane? Do we ask for identification and proof of intent? Could perhaps he simply lie?

No, I don't think they'll probably be able to hijack a plane as they did before, I think they just may try to put a bomb on them. My point of contention is that, just like shark attack victims are probably more concerned about a dip in the ocean, so will any passenger on a U.S. flight be if a hijacker pops up - and calmly evaluating the situation will be the last thing on anyone's mind. Maybe the odds will favor the unfortunate if a sky marshal is on that flight, maybe the pilot can depressurize the plane and render the hijacker unconscious, maybe the pilot can execute a dive to allow passengers to overwhelm the hijacker - or maybe people react first. But there won't be a voice vote with discussion first ...