Why Screen Arriving Intl Pax & Crew?
 

My son and I got off a BA flight LHR-SEA on Sunday and as we exited customs in the South Satellite, we found we had to go through very heavy security scrutiny in order to leave the area.

We all got wanded and groped to within an inch of our lives. I had my shoes X-rayed. The BA cabin staff got especially close attention, to their obvious exasperation.

And the majority of us were simply trying to exit the airport and go home! Anyone connecting to an onward flight would have to pass through security again to reenter another concourse.

Is there ANY rational reason for this? We had just come from perhaps the most secure airport in Europe. And why treat the arriving flight crews like potential security threats when they'd just gotten us to our destination safely?

It just makes us look insane.

[This message has been edited by BearX220 (edited 02-20-2002).]

The reason is that you were entering into an airside/secure area when you exited the customs area. From the South Satellite, you could have gone upstairs to board NW, US and various other international flights, taken the automated bus to the B concourse, or take a shuttle bus from there to get to the D & C concourses - all airside. That's why you have to recheck checked bags to reclaim them again in the main terminal.

The Seattle satellites aren't very well organised in this regard. Other than for PIT, I am not aware of any airport where international arrivals do not exit from the customs hall to the landside/non-secure area.

[This message has been edited by terenz (edited 02-20-2002).]

But we never left a "sterile" area -- from the time we left the aircraft on arrival at SEA, through immigration and the baggage hall and the Customs gantlet, we were secure and sterile and airside as anything. We'd been "sterilized" when we went airside at Heathrow ten hours prior. And when you exit Customs at the South Satellite you are still in a "sterile" zone until you get off the automated train back at the main terminal. The security folks we encountered were just re-sterilizing us for no apparent reason... (and this innovation is definitely post-9/11).

Now that you mention it, I've never understood the insistence on re-surrendering checked bags at the Satellite either... I must be terribly dull and slow. http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ft...orum/frown.gif

You've illustrated the reason right there. You (you being any passenger or person who is reclaiming checked luggage, not you personally) had contact with your checked baggage in which you could have quite legally packed items that would be prohibited in the secure area. You could then unpack these items in the luggage claim/customs area and take them into the airside secure area.

Example:

You flew from Frankfurt to SEA (not that there is a flight from FRA to SEA). At FRA, you checked your handgun/knife/can of mace/meat cleaver/sharp instrument as checked baggage. When you reclaim your checked baggage to clear customs at the South Satellite, you could unpack your handgun/knife/can of mace/meat cleaver/sharp instrument and, in the absence of (effective) security, take it with you into the airside secure area.


[This message has been edited by terenz (edited 02-20-2002).]

terenz is right on.

I found this to be quite an amazement as well when I arrived into SEA from NRT in November. I had to go through Security and all I wanted to do was go home... http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ft...orum/frown.gif

Terenz has clarified the situation, and for that I am very grateful!

Now my question is... given Terenz's adroit reasoning... why hasn't this security checkpoint at the Customs exit ALWAYS been there?

As far as I know, the security point has always been there - it had to be. I can't state this for certain but I *think* I've seen it there for the last 13 years. Never arrived in SEA on an international flight.

I think the reasoning for it being in the satellites is that the two carriers (NW in the S, presumably it was PA in the north) could clear pax and then transfer them to connecting flights. It isn't the best airport for pax terminatng in SEA.

Actually, the "reverse screening" security checkpoint outside Customs was only installed about two years ago as the FAA became increasingly concerned about arriving international passengers being allowed into a sterile area. After claiming luggage in the Customs area passengers are required to recheck the luggage because of concerns over train congestion (on the train to the Main Terminal), not security concerns.

Well I think the reason they make you re-check luggage is more than just clogging the train. What if I flew in with my knife collection in my checked suitcases are they going to let me wander out into the concourse assuming that I will make my way out of the secure area. Security does not want to have to screen everyones checked luggage it would take forever. So they send it out and you pick it up outside the secure area.

Also you think that LHR and other Airports are secure but SEA may think otherwise insisting that you get rescreened in order to enter the secure part of the airport. Who knows what airport you flew in from and how secure that foreign airport is. I certainly question LHR security as I have had things stolen in the secure area by B.A. or Airport employees and the airport claims to have no cameras recording people's faces to track down thefts in the Airport.

Well, I last cleared Customs in SEA about one year ago, in February '01, and the security checkpoint certainly wasn't there then. But considering the good points you all make, it sure should've been.

Thanks. I may not have noticed this as I didn't fly from the satellites between 1992 and 2000. That was a security hole and a good thing it was plugged before someone exploited it.

FWIW, they used to screen pax on commuter flights from wherever in Australia (ARM for one) into SYD when you arrived at SYD! I guess a hijacked DH-8 couldn't go too far.

It's also worth pointing out that there are several levels of people who will prevent you from opening your checked bags (if they can catch you) in the customs area and before you put them back on the belt. The customs agents will be over to you in a flash if they see you tugging on zippers before you clear customs, and the men who man the belts will attempt to keep you from opening them after customs if they bother enforcing the rule which is posted all over the place.
It may be the they just depended on these people before the security was put in place.

Another hazard: due to construction in the last year, the N-S subway hasn't been running. This means that what was previously a very simple connection from arriving SEA-NRT UA flight in S to a departing UA flight in N now entails going through security into the N gates. If you're not PremEx or higher, that can mean an hour or two (at that hour of the morning).

It seems ATL also has this feature.