Interesting search
 

I arrived for my flight at TRI (a small regional airport serving Tri-Cities area, TN/VA). I have been flying frequently for 10 years and most employees know me. As usual I did not check luggage and checked in at the kiosk. My boarding pass did not indicate additional security screening. It has been YEARS since I had a TSA search. However, it was my lucky day. I was called over for what I thought was the screening I remembered having before.

The girl said she was going to use the wand and whenever it went off, she was going to touch that spot. I have had this done before, but not to this degree. What was different was that if she wanded the same spot more than once, she rubbed it again. She even asked to slide her fingers in behind the metal button of my jeans. The good news is that she did not run her hand down my metal zipper.

Then she indicated to me that she was going to do a more thorough search and would I like to go behind the curtain for that? I was thinking I did not want to be alone with her behind the curtain, that I wanted this to be public. So she proceeded to run both hands tightly down my arms, legs, and torso.

And to top it off, she did not hand-search my carry-on or purse. If I had to be searched that much, doesn't someone think she should have searched my bags, too?

It strikes me that she fell off of Search Point and fell into Grope Valley.:eek:

Looks to me like she likes you:D
Really TSA is such a joke. There is no excuse for anyone being treated that way. Me I would not have stood for it & would probably have got in trouble.
I also think you should go to the press with this.

if i was watching, i too might have found it to be an interesting search ^

but seriously, does sound VERY odd and should probably have been questioned and reported.

E

File a complaint.

These disgusting pat-downs/cheap feels should not be happening without clear, probable cause.

Is she cute?

Ask yourself this:

If she looked like Ann Coulter, would you have enjoyed it?

I was not paying attention to looks, but I would not have enjoyed no matter what she looked like!

As opposed to if she looked like... oh, let's see... Rosie or Ellen? :p

I agree with Spiff... time to complain.

This deserves a written complaint. Just describe the events--no emotional content--and send copies of the letter to the following five parties. You would potentially help a lot of people by sending out a complaint. Be as specific as you can about the date, time, and appearance of the screener.

1. The FSD (security director) of the airport
2. The airline you flew
3. The airport director
4. The TSA
5. The editor of a local paper

You will get more of a response if you include the airport and airline.

Whatever this woman was doing--wasting time, sexual thrills, giving you a hard time, etc--it was not appropriate.

You will find this type of scenerio at small regional airports. Technically, TSA is suppose to be doing these "random" screening per their SOP. You just don't see it much at larger airports because there just isn't time. Some barely have the personnel to resolve alarms and other issues nevermind have time to pick on the general traveling public.

The airline I worked for was out of a dinky one gate airport. Our plane held a whopping 19 passengers and stopped at 2 airports before ours. Many times we would only be putting 3 or 4 passengers on. Many times the number of TSA workers in the checkpoint would outnumber the number of passengers we had for that flight. More than likely 1 person out of the 3 or 4 would be pulled over for "extra screening". Many were people who flew with us weekly, so I received many complaints about the gropings and the searches they were put through at our airport. (Yes, passengers told me that they weren't treated like this at other bigger airports.) Eventually, you just wouldn't see the people anymore, and we just knew that they had opted to fly out of a larger airport over an hour away just to avoid TSA nonsense.

The sad thing is that no matter how much we complained about it and them--hey we were the ones losing passengers, nothing changed. There is too many people out there that think TSA is doing a "great job", and dare I say, grateful for the "security".

Excellent observations. Twice I flew into North Platte, Nebraska for depositions. Both times departing, TSA groped me. Four screeners (two male, two female) for a 19 seat twin turboprop. Neither time did my boarding pass have the dreaded SSSS marking. Neither time did I alarm the WTMD or have bulges on my person/in my clothing. Other attorneys - male and female - boarding both flights out of North Platte had the same experience - no SSSS, no alarm, no bulges, but TSA gropes.

I imagine that the FSD of Denver International has decreed that a large percentage of passengers departing North Platte would be subjected to groping, because Great Lakes Airline feeds UA at DIA. From North Platte, the only even halfway reasonable alternative is to drive about three hours to Omaha. But that is not much of an alternative. Oh well, we cannot take any chances with our aviation security, right? Think of the children. :rolleyes:

This is an interesting point, and I think it needs to be brought up in the letter to the FSD. If a small airport's security procedures are more intrusive, it could cost the airport its livelihood.
In the grim era of widespread gate screening, commuter flights were always the toughest: fewer passengers, greater likelihood of getting pulled aside. On some flights, EVERY passenger had to be gate screened.

Smaller, commuter airports already face business problems due to higher fares. They don't need excessive security screening to make life even harder for them.

It reminds me of how Customs and Immigration can be far more exhaustive at Baltimore or Charlotte than at JFK, Newark, Atlanta, or Houston. The bigger airports have higher volume, real threats; they don't have the time or interest to bother the everyday passenger.

One would think that the FSD would care, but not so in the case of the airport where I worked. The FSD didn't think that his personnel were "busy enough", so he decided that all checked bags were full searches and at the checkpoint he had them keeping track of how many bags went through the x-ray, how many bags they opened and how many people they groped.

Nice guy. :td:

Thank you all for your suggestions and input. I was not sure if what happened to me had become the norm, since I had not been searched in a long time. Glad it is not supposed to be!

(Homer Simpson Voice)

Aww....why can't **I** get the female screeners who want to cop a cheap feel? Stupid TSA...D'OH!!

--PP