Was on a Skywest UX (CR700 - sitting in F) flight yesterday. During boarding a TSO boards and walks to back of the plane. The captain notices and asks the FA "what's he doing? how did he get on my plane?". The captain keeps his eye on the TSO the whole time (for obvious reasons; TSA agents are known to damage planes), and rolls his eyes as the TSO leaves.

Evidentially airline pilots are unaccustomed to TSO pre-flight inspections.

...Interesting.

Very interesting, considering we're supposed to notify the flight crew of the need for the inspection, and not just, you know, roll on in like we own the thing.

And doing it while the plane is being... boarded?

...How very interesting.


(by the way, in fairness, it was not TSOs who damaged the AE planes. They were ASIs :P)

Thanks for the quick response.

I stand corrected. I have changed my OP to use the term the TSA used in the ABC story reporting the American Eagle incident.

I was boarding a Delta flight ATL-TLV last week and there was an employee not in a TSA uniform, not a crew member, standing on the jetway at the entry door to the plane. She was smiling at each passenger saying "Welcome to Delta."

I asked her if she worked for Delta, and she said no, then mumbled something about who she did work for, which I didn't catch/understand (a BDO?). I thanked her for not bellowing, remarking that there were a number of bellowing TSA employees bellowing at the gate so it was a pleasant surprise to see a polite smiling employee for a change.

The TSA people doing the random gate inspection said that it was a requirement of the Israeli government, not a TSA operation. Gate inspection did not occur on the return TLV-ATL flight. What gives?

Flights headed to TLV are subject to additional screening at the gate. It happens on the CO flights from EWR, too. They don't happen at TLV because the Israelis consider the entire air-side part of the airport secure, unlike the gate areas in the USA.

A violation of our civil rights. Best to STOP all flights to and from Israel at this time in history.

Am I crazy or was this semi-common place immediately after 9/11? I feel like I've been checked on the jetbridge, but my memory is a little hazy...

I don't think Israeli doesn't have chance to get halted all flights. Beside, I think all privatized security screening will be dropped at the gate. Because those passengers is already existing searching from TSA checkpoint instead of randon screening at the gate. I knows security is getting more strictest due to too much problems over the countries. Its will be very extremely dangerous out there.

I knows there is no evidence to carry the kind of these weapons. I knows those people were never bring any kind of the guns or knives at all. I think private companies need to get hand-searches instead of wanding on these people. I knows security will be tougher. I think the security need to be removable from the gate. What is about need to be protections all passengers to keep terrorist off the planes, am I correct?

Correct! Everyone is getting secondary screening in the gate but, you will not permitted to leave from secure area until the boarding will be called. No one allowed to leave from waiting area. Security will be very strict due to Israeli governments need to taking own responsibilities for searching all of passengers & crew, too.

No one is forcing you to go to Israel.

The TSA imposes restrictions that require gate checks in many countries. How is this any different?

Yes, it was differnet security but, not even in USA.

I thought airplanes were private property. The pilot should have asked the TSjackAss to leave the plane immediately followed by a call to the police for trespassing. What the hell was the jackass doing on the plane anyways?

I would have guessed AS$s :P

Kind of... there comes special rules for when an airplane is actually attached to a concourse. It becomes an extension of the concourse. It's still private property, but there starts to come with special rules regarding it.

To my understanding, we talk to the flight crew beforehand to attain their permission, and if they say no then we don't screen - but it's done as a courtesy to the airline. I do know that we have to report them saying no, and if they say no so many times it launches an investigation into the airline/flight crew. The guys that come at that point (incidentally, ASIs~) can't be said no to. That's how I understand it to be, anyway; it may or may not be entirely correct, I've never put much interest into the cabin-searches. I know what I have to physically do, and that's about the limit of how much I've cared about it.

Screening.

The only time I have been checked on the jetbridge was SFO-LHR about a week after the liquid scare in 2006.