HeHateY

You need a birth certificate to travel to Canada with an infant, but not for prevention of child smuggling...no, no, it is because there might be a passenger with a dead baby stuffed with explosives!!

This is the tale of a couple who traveled north for Christmas and had their infant selected for a pat-down.

But to get the full audio experience you'll have to fire up your RealPlayer and listen to the segment (the URL will take you right to it, no need to Fast Forward):

http://play.rbn.com/?url=livecon/kcr...8.5&proto=rtsp

HeHateY

Should add that according to United Airlines it would apparently be a dead infant kept warm with chemicals, stuffed with explosives!

AllanJ

Is there a transcript available?

I don't have any audio capability on this computer. Having difficulty getting any experience!

Travel tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm




[This message has been edited by AllanJ (edited Feb 07, 2004).]

HeHateY

No, but I whipped one up for you:

Tales of Airport Security...

Dear Harry,

While planning our annual Christmas Trip to Canada to visit family, I called United Air Lines to ask what kind of documentation would be required to travel with our new baby.

We hadn't yet received the birth certificate from the State of California, but we did have a proof of birth document from the hospital and the baby's Social Security card.

Yes, the federal government had actually worked faster than the state government.

Despite these documents the Customer Service Agent informed me that we would be unable to travel by air to Canada and back without a birth certificate for our infant. I assumed that the concern was infant smuggling so I pressed him for the reason that our other documents were inadequate.

I was informed that it was a security issue.

He explained that people could smuggle things inside dead infants which can appear to be just sleeping when "kept warm with chemicals".

Setting aside that it sounded like a scenario that Tom Clancy might have written in Junior High, how would the presence of a birth certificate assure that my sleeping infant was not in fact dead and stuffed with explosives?

If the concern is really the sneaking of baby corpses onto planes, wouldn't a more sensable security strategy simply be to prod sleeping babies to see if they wake up, birth certificate or no? However if airport security institutes a policy of prodding only sleeping babies, they will leave the travelling public vulnerable to the threat posed by terrorists turned taxidermists who could make explosive-packed dead babies appear awake with the aid of chemicals to keep them warm of course.

We ended up flying North and renting a car to drive over the border.

On the return Domestic flight, we were selected for additional screening, during which I was directed to hold up my baby so she could be patted down by airport security. When I objected I was told, "It's just policy Ma'am".

I didn't get a reply when I asked what security concern was being addressed by this policy of infant pat-downs. Perhaps they were checking to see if I was travelling with a dead baby.

(End of Letter)

Learning something new every day Ladies and Gentlemen on Tales of Airport Security, a copyrighted feature...

TSAMGR

The policy of birth certificates is from the air carriers. Some have policies, such as Southwest that allow children under 2 years old to fly free. They require a birth certificate to prove this. The statements were from the air carrier customer service agent not TSA or other government agent. It seems the air carrier agent has a great imagination.

As far as holding a child to be patted down, yes this is normal. Items can be concealed on the child thus the pat down.