Can the experts help me out on this one?

3 out of 5 people in my family were SSSSed at OGG yesterday. We were on Hawaiian to HNL on the second half of a standalone r/t (we connected to IND on different airline, we checked in for our other flight upon arriving at HNL).

Lots of fun watching my wife, 7 year old son and 9 year old daughter getting the full SSSS "treatment". Even more comical was "the treatment" in light of their attire: shorts, t-shirts and flip flops. Full wanding, pat down ect. OGG was busy, they did not do a through search of our carryons (or a residual scan).

My questions: First, all 5 members of my family were on the same PNR, why only SSSS 3 of us? Second, why does the TSA wand bare feet? Or are the agents programmed to follow a certain SOP regardles of how dumb it looks?

Thousand Standing Around (TSA) is afraid that your family might be packing several pounds of C4 masquerading as toe jam. Of course, we all know that it can't be detected by "the wand".

If you're looking for logic behind the haraSSSSment, expect none. This agency is just like a spoiled child at times, beyond logic, compassion, or reason. And as a spoiled child, needs to be punished (preferably disbanded) for some of the asinine things they concoct.

I think the logic is quite clear:
Your wife, daughter, and son are probably terrorists; the other two members of your family are not.

I mean--how much do you really know about your 7 year-old? Is he who he says he is? Have you looked at his driver's license? For all we know, your 7 year-old could be a 30 year-old female Chechnyan terrorist with plastique hidden in his flip-flops.

Don't you think you're being just a little naive?

There has been an increasing amount of "chatter" involving brainwashing children to carry exploding flip-flops. Of course this information is highly classified. Fortunately TSA personnel have been briefed on a particular terrorist "profile"
- School-age
- Flip-flop wielding
- In a t-shirt
- Appearing to be "on vacation" with "siblings" and "parents"

Thank goodness the Department of Homeland Security is staying one step ahead of these "bad guys!"

I think you need to go frisk all of your children before it's too late for all of us!

Hey, buddy... I think it's about time you had a random home search. It's for your own protection. You have nothing to hide, of course...

And guess who goes to jail for child molestation?

We all know who will not go to jail for child molestation, or for that matter molestation of adult travelers.

You are overlooking the fact that on the PNR there is no place for age. The computer doesnt know if the person is 9mo or 99 years old.

Excuse me, but you are missing the most obvious lack of logic in this whole thing.

They tell you IN ADVANCE that you are subject to SSSS. Therefore, if you have anything dangerous, you give it to somebody else to carry on. If you are really a bad guy, maybe you opt not to fly. Of you buy another ticket for another flight to get through security.

In this particular case, your terrorist kids could give the bad stuff to you to carry on.

What a joke! What GOOD CAN THIS POSSIBLY DO?

ITs called displacement. IT is an active theory of security.

Ok, you can tell us. What was really in those Leis?

You are missing the point...there is an inherent lack of common sense here as it's obvious to both your agency and the airline whether or not the passenger is a minor.

Regardless, since you apparently do not appreciate the basic common-sense arguement regarding this issue, the carrier or TSA have the authority to deselect minors for haraSSSSment. Time for you to review your SOP.

What you are overlooking is my original question, why only 3 out of 5 on the same PNR? I'd feel better if we were all secondaried.

Caught. They were poppy leis. But they handed 'em to me and I made it thru!

I am not privy to TSA SOP and I do not know security theory, but common sense dictates that if 3 of 5 people on the same PNR were flagged with SSSS designation, the other 2 should also be SSSS. More evidence that the entire security/screening regimen is dog and pony show. If we are truly serious about security, then screen everyone. If resources is an issue, then concentrate on travelers most likely to be terrorists. The Israeli model of looking for dangerous people, not dangerous things, is probably the best method.

Yep. It gives terrorists advance warning to 'displace' their bad items into a un SSSS'd colleague's carry on.