I meant to post this a week ago when it happened, but I've been on the road the past couple of weeks.

On 08/07/08 I flew on DL 879, a routine AM, short haul flight from ATL to TPA using 767-300 equipment.

As boarding time came, a PA announcement was made in the gate area that a security sweep of the aircraft had to be made and that we'd board in 30 minutes. I stayed near the gate / podium for a few to see if I could overhear anything as to what was happening only to get chased away as DL staff was talking. I then left the boarding area for about 20 minutes to get coffee, returned to hear another "it'll be a few more minutes - we apologise for the delay but security is top priority" type announcement.

Upon boarding the plane, pilot gets on the PA and announces the aircraft had just come in as a redeye from LAX and said it was necessary to do a "first of the morning security sweep" and apologized.

I fly DL from time to time, but not on a regular basis (I typically fly AA). I can't say that I buy the "security sweep" excuse as being "routine because the inbound had just arrived from LAX" - I suspect something more happened, unless our pilot was a real security freak. If it was "routine", then why a delay and a big stink about it over the PA at the gate?

Sure, I accept it was a security sweep, but what was the REAL reason? FWIW, I had to return to TPA and took the same flight a couple days ago and had no such security sweep or delay.

Most other equipment had also been inbound from redeyes and were not delayed due to security reasons (ok, I didn't hear announcements or see posted delays for security at other nearby gates).

Anyone experience anything like this with DL recently?

SDF_Traveler

I've seen it done a couple of times on various airlines. AA out of DFW one time (plane had come in from ANC), DL another time. Sometimes TSA walks through. Usually it's done before you even arrive at the gate. Most frequently it's the first flight of the day for that aircraft....

Realize it's not a direct quote, but if that's their top priority, where does that put flight safety and passenger safety?

I didn't catch the exact wording, thus the indirect quote, so it could have been "safety" in place of "security" -- but they were making a big fuss about the security sweep at the time.

Perhaps it is routine for the first flight of the day per Global_Hi_Flyer, but it's just done as a matter of routine and nothing is said about it.

I could see it being part of an AM first flight checklist, but why make a big issue out of that being the cause of a delay. Was the delay because of the "security sweep" or was it really because the pilot, crew, or whoever is responsible for said sweep on first flight of the AM was late? I arrived into ATL at an adjacent gate and the aircraft was at the gate over 90 minutes prior to departure.

I'm personally sick of excuses where "security" is used. I recently had a GA pull the security card when I asked about a delayed flight due to late inbound; I asked where is the late inbound arriving from .. "Sorry, can't tell you, security reasons".

I finally did find the info on an arrival board, went to flightaware & the inbound hadn't even departed the origin city.

End of rant

SDF_Traveler

The aircraft's departure paperwork got the dreaded SSSS and it hadn't passed checkpoint screening so TSA had to do a gate check. You're lucky there was more than 100 ml of fuel on board when you left.

You, I and the rest of the public that actually catches a plane once in a while should not, for a moment, accept this cr$#p from those whose salaries we pay.
What kind of turgid thought process could possibly process the logic that the inbound route for your equipment is witholdable security information?
"Sorry, can't tell you, security reasons" can actually be translated to "I'm too lazy, stupid or slovenly to figure it out... Go away and stop bothering me"