The act of volunteering to be searched itself seems suspicious. Imagine a pair of terroists, one who is clean, ties up security by volunteering to be searched while the other with weapons or whatever goes by.

About saluting ....many many years ago as an enlisted man in the US Army, I recall not saluting while standing, cap off, in a roofed bus stop, hearing a newly minted officer pass by and comment to his companion, hey wasn't he supposed to salute us. I was prepared to say my not saluting was per protocol.

As explained to me, in the US armed forces, one does not salute without one's cap on. But you are not supposed to wear your cap while indoors.

Hence, no saluting indoors. The most you'd have to do is to come to attention when a superior officer comes by.

Last flight last year CO - IAH - LAX

Boarded with F/C pre-board then all boarding stopped, All passangers and flight crew had to leave plane with all carry-ons to stand in Jetway while plane was re-screened.

Explanation from Continental (friendly F/A who I regularly see in F/C) said that a randomly selected indivisual had boarded without being randomly searched.

I am male, fly alone, and often fly with just a small carry on since I have clothes at both ends. Never been randomly selected.



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"A Southwest line never gets longer, It only gets wider"

has anyone just volunteered for the random screenings?

i was thinking of doing that since i get picked a lot anyway, but on second thought, would that raise more scrutiny?

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f

It would certainly reduce the randomness!

andrew

On a recent DL flight from ATL-RDA, DL's gate agents went onboard and made three people get all their carry-on luggage, disembark the plane and go through a very thorough screening due to their ignoring "voluntarily" presenting themselves before boarding when their names were called.

I say ignoring calls to report for secondary screening should always result in you being denied boarding. It's the same thing as sneaking around the magnetometer and x-ray machine.

d

I was on 2 Delta flights recently where the
secondary screening was done right as the passengers were attempting to board the plane. Not only did it keep exactly who was about to be screened confidential until the point of boarding, but it also prevented the situation where somebody who is called for secondary screening ignores it and boards anyway, then causes the entire plane to be emptied and re-boarded. I think somebody finally realized how idiotic it was to announce in advance who was going to be screened. All the terrorists would have to do is travel in teams (each person with a separate reservation), then hand the prohibited articles off to one of their colleagues if their seat number was called
(or if traveling alone, just dump the contraband into a trash can and try, try again on another flight).

I agree completely. Hey, I don't like being patted down and wanded any more than anyone else does. But if I have to play by the rules, so does everyone else. And that means if your name is randomly selected, you better submit to the search. If you're not willing to play by the rules as they are written -- regardless of whether or not you think they are idiotic -- then don't fly.

And if you don't submit to the search, and then get pulled off the plane and delay me and make me miss my connections, then I sure hope they give you a full body cavity search on every single leg of your trip.

I'm not in the military, but my brother-in-law is in the Army. He said that when on sentry duty indoors, you salute. I guess that the NG MPs in airports can be considered to be on sentry duty.

Here's more than you ever wanted to know about saluting

What if you're deaf, like me? I've had to ask the GA whether I'll have to be searched--I had thought about just not worrying and let the gate reader pick me, but I guess I better not do that now and just ask GA everytime--hopefully that won't get me tagged for secondary search... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I was on a DL flight, ATL to SHV, and during the boarding process, there were a total of three people boarding for First Class, including myself. I was second in line, and overheard the GA asking the guy in front of me if he'd be willing to be searched... "since I have to search 'someone'". He agreed. I met the same guy on my flight FROM SHV to ATL, and began chatting with 'em... he's a pilot with DL. Nice guy, forgot to get his name. :-(

Concerning the "random" searches... I noticed that Delta no longer calls people up to the counter, to be searched. "Mr. Smith, please come to the ticket counter", and then be pointed over to the happy agent with the gloves. Now it's, as you're boarding, "sir, could you step over to the other agent, please"? I've had that happen twice, once at ATL to PNS, and vice versa. At PNS, I was asked to be searched, by the two security guys, one with the wand and the other with the gloves. I rolled my eyes... Guard 1 said to Guard 2, "See, how they just keep looking forward, avoiding eye contact?" Interesting... but true, I was looking directly ahead at the GA, trying to avoid getting felt up by Mr. Happy Fingers.

I was friendly, but asked "how come I keep getting tagged by you guys, do I look THAT conspicuous?" They both laughed, and Guard 1 spoke about an article that was recently released, commenting that the "Random Searches" were mostly of young people (I'm 26) and little old ladies. Guard 2 laughed and said that he hasn't searched any old ladies.

Is DL the only one doing the "random guy in the line that's not looking directly at you" approach to searches at the gate?

RG