bdschobel

There is no love lost between police and low-level TSA screeners. Many airport police are quite willing to tell people how unhappy they are with the TSA.

Bruce

Sammythebarber

You are always free to leave unless the officer tells you that you must stay either through arrest or detention upon a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

It's kind of like when the officer says "Do you mind if I look in your trunk?" I can't believe the number of stupid crooks who say sure

L-1011

Answering "sure" to that question means the crook does mind and just told the officer NOT to search the trunk

Cargojon

I'm not sure if anyone has addressed this point or not, as I don't feel like scanning 1000+ posts for it....however your statement here is full of inaccuracies. As you can probably tell from my screen name, I am employed in the cargo end of the aviation industry.

1. An individual cannot tender cargo to an airline. Only an IATA-certified freight forwarder / shipping company can tender cargo to an airline. Walk over to your favorite airline's cargo office and ask to ship a piece of cargo, and they'll laugh at you.

2. There are several security programs in place to prevent random cargo from being put on passenger aircraft. While I am not allowed to disclose any details of these programs (and they are in the process of being upgraded), rest assured it is virtually impossible for cargo to get on board a passenger airplane unless it has met rigorous security requirements.

3. If any kind of device were to be placed in a passenger plane, it would be in the inbound leg of an international flight. Think about it. Would a terrorist organization have an easier time putting contraband on a flight inbound from Timbuktu or outbound from JFK? These flights are obviously outside the jurisdiction of the TSA.....
-this is why everyone is concerned about inbound ocean cargo...

4. If Company XYZ ships the same shipment of widgets to London every week, and has done so for the last 4 years, it's silly to waste the time and taxpayer money screening that shipment every single time....

Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in from someone who is in the industry....

ND Sol

From the latest Consumer Reports (my bolding):

tom911

What oversight does the airline shipping the cargo, or TSA, have over new employees hired by the shipper, though? If that company has been problem free for years, couldn't a new employee, or an existing employee that has gone bad, tamper with that shipment?

mkt

If Pax XYZ flies the same itin to London every week, and has done so for the last 4 years, is it not silly to waste time and taxpayer money screening that Pax every single time?

Superguy

Why couldn't I just use something like UPS Sonic Air for a shipment that goes on the next flight?

It's not the random packages that just find their ways onto planes were worried about.

And considering TSA just trusts shippers and has a very poor record when it comes to passenger and bag screening, I don't buy the "rigorous" security requirements.

TSA's jurisdiction has nothing to do with it. It's security is about as good as some of these third world countries anyway. Puts on a good show, but it leaks like a seive.

Besides, if TSA isn't screening it anyway, my response to points 1 and 2 stand.


You could also put a lot more bad stuff on a big ship plus detonate it before it reached port. A ship could come up the Chesapeake and get close to Baltimore and DC and wreak a lot of havoc if it had a nuke in it.

This argument is silly. Passenger X flies the same route on Monday and returns on Friday every week and has done so for 4 years. We don't skip screening those pax. Why should we skip screening the cargo?

Superguy

Made that argument too.

Of course, TSA would suggest something like Clear or a registered traveler program.

Cargojon

You people seriously have no idea how difficult it is to get a piece of cargo on a passenger aircraft, do you? Which makes sense, you don't deal with it on a daily basis. But don't act like a politician and act like you have all the answers when you have no clue about the inner workings of the industry - nor the security requirements...which as I said are not disclosed to the general public. ^

Just remember kiddies, people executed the attacks of 9/11, not cargo.

mkt

Been there, done that, not going back. They were chipper about refunding my money when reality hit me.

Cargojon

Cost about 5 minutes and 5 bucks to screen a passenger. Cost a lot more time and money to screen cargo as exhaustively as the passengers are screened.

Superguy

Then tell me how UPS with this service:

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shi...tical_dom.html

UPS Express Critical

Best available flight 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year

Tells me if UPS has to get something there NOW, they're not going to wait and put it on their planes if a better commercial flight is available. Additionally, other posters have reported UPS uses commercial flights and I've seen airline tags on Express Mail packages from the post office. If you want to get something on a specific flight, it might be hard, but if a terrorist doesn't care what flight it gets on, I have a hard time believing that if I paid enough money to a shipper that I couldn't get a package on a flight ASAP.

I agree with that. A lot of what is banned is stupid. That doesn't mean that there aren't dangerous items that shouldn't be on board.

Superguy

Costs me a lot more than that in time.

Then again, packages don't need to remove shoes, use baggies, put stuff in bins, etc, though.

Cargojon

UPS is obviously an IATA approved freight/shipping company. They will put cargo on a passenger plane only if the shipper meets the qualifications to put their cargo on a passenger plane. Can't discuss the specifics more than that, but rest assured, John Q. Public's UPS package isn't riding your AA flight to ORD. If UPS has to get something there NOW, they're going to do so within the parameters of the law...

As far as mail is concerned, under 16 oz (I believe, I don't deal with small stuff, might be less) is OK for pax aircraft IIRC. Or it may just be documents, I'm not 100% sure...like I said that's not by bag. But at any rate, John Q. Public's "express mail" package to Grandma isn't riding on your US Air flight to PHL either. The post office is using FedEx primarily for their small package express service if memory strikes me correctly.

Finally, they *may* X-ray or scan small packages, I don't know...again not my thing. It's certainly more practical than trying to scan/X-ray/etc. 2000 lbs. of mining equipment on a skid headed to Germany...