My first inane experience with TSA
 

I'll keep this short.

I had my first "experience" with TSA. About a week ago I was on a flight for ZRH out of BOS. I was a few minutes late and the Swiss counter was disorganised (I think they were training new employees). Anyways, I get to security and ask if I should take off the knee brace and put it through the XRAY machine and go through the metal detector. There was nobody in line (it was empty, probably as Swiss was the last flight out).

I was told "no...keep it on". *shrug* Whatever.

The metal detector beeps. The TSA guy goes "I wonder what that could be." I asked him, "Could I remove it and put it through XRAY then go through the metal detector again?" "No, sorry. [name yelled] detector went off. Go over there, he's going to search you," was the reply.

I was saying in my mind you can't ....ing be serious. It takes him about 15 minutes to do a complete search, the only place where the wands were going off was around the knee brace. What a surprise. And yet they never had me remove it and put it through XRAY, after I was scanned 6 times palms up and down, they let me go and collect myself.

I was at the point of doing what the countless before me have wanted to say but were afraid for various reasons. I thought about it on the plane as to why I didn't speak my mind and it came down to, there was NOBODY around. So I'd miss my flight, maybe get arrested for no value since no one would hear me complaining -regardless how loud I became.

To finish the wonderful experience, the idiot patting me down was not careful around my knee. He kept pressing hard into the affected areas, and I told him "Can you be more careful" which he always responded to "Sure." Nothing changed. It was 15 minutes of a completely useless, stupid search. And in my opinion, completely unnecessary. And to top it off, the wand only beeped when around my knee brace and they didn't even ....ing XRAY it.

It sounded like the same reason that shoe removal was "optional" pre-8/06 -- and that's liability.

They probably told you to keep it on because they didn't want to say that you should walk around without it. Because if you did, and you injured yourself, you would have had a hell of a lawsuit against the TSA.

Sorry you experienced that.

I'd say the last paragraph negates that. I told them the only reason I was wearing the knee brace was because I needed to wear it for sports and was taking a client to St Moritz to ski and it takes up too much space in my luggage, and offered a doctor's note (official) to say the same.

You're bordering on logic here, which is not very abundant in the TSA or its procedures.

As for the secondary screening, I did read that, but I'm not sure, short of you requiring you to go to the doctor, much can, or would, be done at the TSA.


For perspective, I've seen people get out of their wheelchairs and walk through the metal detector. One time in DEN, I encountered a really, um, colorful person...on the heels of a high-profile incident that was reported in the local media, telling the TSAer "I don't want your [effing] paws on me, I saw on TV what you do to people in wheelchairs."

>>As for the secondary screening, I did read that, but I'm not sure, short of you requiring you to go to the doctor, much can, or would, be done at the TSA.<<

Perhaps it's late and I've had too much to drink, but can you tell me what you meant by this?

Sure -- in your first reply, my perception is that you thought I dismissed what you got in secondary screening to be inconsequential, not amounting to anything.

OK.

What I meant was if they gave a damn about lawsuits they wouldn't have been pushing deep into my knee (esp. around the ACL which I said was torn). The fact that they were just shows that it wasn't a lawsuit they were worried about (the only place they applied more than usual pressure was my knee after all).

The secondary was stupid, and what's even more stupid was the fact that after I was in secondary and the wand kept beeping at my knee brace, they didn't ask me to sit down, remove it, and put it through XRAY. They just let me walk onto the plane.

Again, logic is not plentiful at the TSA.

ok, so the screeners "know ahead of time" that you have a knee brace and that it will alarm.

if you go thru the wtmd and you alarm, you should get secondary and i have no problem with that

what i have an issue with is how long it took and how it was done. it would have been much simpler if:

a) the tsa let you take the knee brace off, put it thru x-ray and go the wtmd a second time (and iirc, every one gets a second chance for things like loose change in the pocket and belt buckles)

b) you told the screener it would be much easier if you dropped trou and began to loosen your belt. two hockey pucks says that would get their attention quicker than they could yell "bravo"

Plenty of people in wheelchairs are capable of walking through the metal detector. There were a couple of years my mother-in-law was like that--she used a chair because she couldn't realistically get around without one but she could walk a little bit without it.

I don't agree with most of aeroport security, but I'm fine with (A). The comment from the first guy "I wonder what set it off" (or whatever he exactly said) just illustrates the point. But if they were truly trying to make things safe, they would have made me remove the knee brace and put it through XRAY after secondary. They didn't. It's a giant smokescreen to try to make stupid people feel safe. It's .........

Please take a moment to post this to this link:
https://contact.tsa.dhs.gov/gotfeedb...tFeedback.aspx

The more feedback they get the harder it is to ignore the statistics.

(Emphasis mine)

As soon as I got to that point, I knew I could stop reading. My hometown has some of the most "unusual" practices in the system.

Mike

Oh yeah, of course. I'm sorry if I made it sound like only a select few could do that. I have a family member in the same boat as your m-i-l.

And what are they supposed to do to those with metal implants? Amputate to "truly make things safe"? These checks have virtually nothing to do with security or safety. Reality surfaces in the last part of your quote above, and the longer they keep going with this cr*p, the more people realize that.


DEN TSA, still at war with the local populace. :D Mr. Crabtree still employed there? :rolleyes: