flowerchild

While in line to board a DL flight at IAD, I noticed security had *randomly* chosen a party of four Hispanics, one of them being an extremely overweight man, for an additional gate check. It seemed more like profiling to pull the whole group rather than choosing one or two. Is this a common practice or is there something I missed?

eastwest

I don't like the abuse that many pax are suffering in the name of "security" but we really don't know all the facts in this particular situation. There may have been a reason for securities actions.

Doppy

You don't really know why they were selected. The computer might have automatically flagged them. Or, if it only flagged one of them, it makes sense to me that all of them should be searched. If a group of terrorists are traveling together and only one is selected for the random search, it's pretty easy to hand off stuff to the others in the group, there are plenty of FTers who have posted they've done it.

d

flaco

A few months back I flew CO ATL-EWR with my wife. We had 3 pieces of luggage. We used the automatic check-in machines, but when we went to give in the luggage we were told that I had been selected to have my bags searched. I had been selected, not my wife. So they asked me which bag/s was mine!!! It felt so silly. It means that if there was something illegal or dangerous in one of bags I could have simply said that a different bag was "mine". And they would have of course only checked that one, because my wife wasn't selected and the other ones are "hers".
Tip to smugglers- travel in pairs; make sure all the good stuff is in one bag.

HKG_Flyer1

I was on a flight a few weeks ago from SJU-SDQ where over 1/2 the pax (virtually all Dominicans) were subjected to additional screening at the gate. I suspect this was due to the fact that:

1) many of them were probably infrequent flyers; and/or

2) had paid for their tickets in cash, since credit card ownership is less widespread in the Dominican Republic.

I thought it was a little bit absurd, but that seems to be a common theme in the new world of airport security.

venk

Anyone who thinks the additional screening is random or selected by non-airline policies (FAA/FBI) exclusively is deluded.

All you have to do to verify this is to travel a number of different airlines. All of them have a certain percentage that they separate for additional screening and yet my chances of being separated is very different in each airline.

I am "gold" elite or better in UA, AA and CO. I have never had a flight in AA where I wasn't subjected to additional screening. In UA, I have onloy been separated for additional screening once in LHR. CO is inbetween. If it was strictly random and selected by FAA/FBI alone why would I find this experience so different amongst the airlines?

In my experience, skin color/ethnicity does seem to play a larger role in AA selections than UA or CO.

mauld

On a recent flight from MDW to EWR I happened to sit near the security 'checkers' at the gate. There was a slight delay, and they began a conversation with a passenger next to them. When asked how they 'randomly' selected passengers, they said they usually take those that jump up when the door is opened and the announcement is made for First Class & Elite boarding--since they like to annoy the flyers who 'think they are so important & can fly in FC. They also look around prior to boarding and pick out 'business types' who they know will get upset at the prospect. They did say they generally will not pick out families, moms with kids or those who with lots & lots of stuff to go through.
Now, this is not in any way official, just what I overheard and is obviously not true at all airports.
But after that conversation, I'll never again get up at the first call!

ka9taw

I noticed this on boarding for a flight MCO-ORD a few weeks ago, except that the "group" was Japanese, not Hispanic. (Their colleague who boarded later, by himself, was not pulled for extra screening) I suspect that a profile that is being looked at is a group of people travelling together -- presumably non-American -- will be checked out. Of course, that will just teach folks not to try to board as a group...

Mary2e

What I don't get is why they are selecting obviously elderly and/or disabled passengers for a gate check.

My experirence - I witnessed an elederly woman in a wheelchair being asked to get out of her chair for inspection while someone looked through her carry on.

And, last week, my 70ish parents were also randomly selected at the gate. From reading this board and my experiences, I knew it would happen & warned them.

It appears that the screeners are "randomly" selecting the LEAST likely candidates to be carried disallowed items.

Mary

venk

None of the hijacker groups on 9/11 boarded as a group. I wouldn't anticipate anyone doing so even if they weren't aware of this profiling. Even a petty thief in NYC knows the problems of moving around as a group.

doc

Please also see:

Airport Behavior Profile Suggested

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/006400.html

venk

I suspect that the "least likely" are very often selected to make the process look random (statisticians will gag). The current random process translates to selecting the "most likely" (according to some arbitrary standard) and the "least likely". A 60 year old woman from Texas was strip-searched in AMS.

On the other hand, if the intent is to find unallowed items (performance measured by this), I suspect as a checker I would target the elderly and ignorant (which might translate foreign tourists in some uneducated eyes) as most likely to have not bothered to be completely "clean" thereby increasing the "success" rate of the search.
:-)

happymob

In many cases, there are computer selected searches mixed in with the "random" ones. I wouldn't want to assume that the group of Hispanics were intended to be "random".

What I have observed is that passengers with foreign passports on domestic flights tend to get flagged by the computers for screening. Perhaps that was the case this time?

The anecdotal evidence that the "random" screeners choose based on whatever personal grudge they have against a certain group of passengers is bothersome nonetheless.

svpii

A good point was brought up earlier. I posted previously that when my husband and I recently flew to LGW from CLT, he was checked at security AND at the gate 100% of the time. He had been carrying my rollaboard because it was heavier and I had his small backpack. After the 2nd time of this, he took the backpack so that the extra search would take less time... they never checked me, even though I hung back, made it obvious I was his wife, etc.

It would seem to me that if they had any doubt about whether he was a risk, they would have wanted to check the carryon of anyone traveling with him as well.

He is Gold w/ US, we bought our tickets well in advance with a credit card, had checked bags, and he had scrubbed up pretty well http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif, so I'm not sure if it was anything more than happenstance that he got the pleasure of a full bag search four times in one trip or not, but it's curious...

mdtony

It's like "Airplane." They're going over the little old ladies with walkers with a fine tooth comb, while they'll let the guys with bombs strapped to their chests walk through without saying a thing.

I'm telling you, they need to start profiling. I don't care what the ACLU says, they need to do it. Someone who fits the profile of a typical hijacker needs to be subject to additional scrutiny -- not denied boarding, but subject to additional scrutiny. There is a big difference between the two.