BootsnAll Travel Community

So I was in Denver this week, racing to catch an earlier flight home. I swear, I was #1 to go through the scanner, and they switched operators at the X-Ray machine. The new guy sat down, looked at the screen, looked at the keyboard, then back and the screen, and, I kid you not, said, "Aw crap, I pushed the wrong button."

Well whatever he did really jammed up the machine, because he had to call a supervisor. Even she couldn't fix it - so after a good 5 to 10 minutes of trying, we were all shuffled over to a new lane.

Of course, that 10 minutes cost me the chance to go standby, so I got to spend two lovely extra hours at the Denver airport.

quote:

Originally posted by Capt Steve:...I kid you not, said, "Aw crap, I pushed the wrong button."

Damn wrong buttons!


When I flew out of Knoxville I had to take off my belt,my shoes,my glasses and my carry-on was ran through the scanner 3 times.
When I got on the South Afican Air flight in Atlanta,they gave me a metal fork and steak knife with lunch.Go figure.

It should be noted that two months after 9/11 my 3 year old cousin flew from Detroit to San Francisco and back with a utility knife in her cute pink backpack. When her mother asked where it came from, she said a man "with a head like a box" put it in her pack.

Great.

Jet

quote:

When her mother asked where it came from, she said a man "with a head like a box" put it in her pack.

What the hell was NTFT doing in Detroit then???

quote:

quote:
When her mother asked where it came from, she said a man "with a head like a box" put it in her pack.

What the hell was NTFT doing in Detroit then???

I thought NTFT had a round face with a really goofy smile. (help up by a hand.)

Who the heck knows what a three year old is talking about when she says something like that...

Jet

WASHINGTON -- The government sought to assure airline travelers Tuesday that X-raying shoes at security checkpoints was a reliable way of detecting weapons and explosive devices.

"Screening shoes by X-ray is an effective way of identifying any anomaly, including explosives," said Kip Hawley, Transportation Security Administration chief, at a news conference at Reagan National Airport just outside Washington.

Under new orders this week, all airline passengers must put their shoes through X-ray machines at checkpoints.

But according to a Homeland Security report on aviation screening obtained by The Associated Press, the machines don't help screeners find a specific liquid or gel that can be used as a bomb.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...AR2006081500622.html

"I was not allowed to board a plane from Fresno to [San Francisco] yesterday (August 10) because my shoe insole was supposedly made of "gel".

Ragui Michael, San Francisco

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/11/more.terror.emails/index.html

Snake Threat Level Change for the Aviation Sector

NO SNAKES OF ANY KIND WILL BE PERMITTED ON A PLANE. SNAKES ARE NO LONGER ALLOWED IN CHECKED BAGGAGE.
This includes all pythons, boas, rattlesnakes, vipers, mambas, adders, and other known species of snakes.

Boy, 12, evades security clampdown

LONDON, England -- Despite a high level of alert at British airports, a 12-year-old boy managed to board a plane at Gatwick without a passport, ticket or boarding pass.

Authorities Warning Women Not to Wear Gel Bras As Worries of Possible Female Bombers Increase


August 16, 2006 11:19 AM

Richard Esposito and Anna Schecter Report:

U.S. authorities are advising women not to wear gel bras on airplanes as information developed in the foiled London plot points to an expanding role for women in smuggling explosives on to an aircraft.


I didn't even know they put gel into bras...

quote:

Originally posted by Stoo:
I didn't even know they put gel into bras...

Don't worry, Stoo. You'll see one someday.

I fly to San Francisco next week and have just confirmed my flight with American Airlines. Right now, we are allowed to carry the same personal electronics in our carry on that we were allowed to carry before. That's the upside.

The downside is that I have to think about what has gone into the manufacture of everything I own to see if I will lose it at security. Thanks for the heads up on the gel-bra.

And if I hear one more person say they are happy with these security changes, I think I am going to scream.

quote:

Thanks for the heads up on the gel-bra.

I did very poorly in Al gel-bra.

Britons shun US as security tightens

Security officials in the United States are seeking to use the latest terrorist scare to make the increased security procedures on transatlantic flights permanent.

In a move likely to anger British holidaymakers already disillusioned by stringent security checks and lengthy check-in procedures, authorities have been demanding flight lists an hour before planes depart for the US, rather than the standard 15 minutes after departure.

Mutiny as passengers refuse to fly until Asians are removed

Passengers refuse to allow holiday jet to take off until two Asian men are thrown off plane

British holidaymakers staged an unprecedented mutiny - refusing to allow their flight to take off until two men they feared were terrorists were forcibly removed.

The extraordinary scenes happened after some of the 150 passengers on a Malaga-Manchester flight overheard two men of Asian appearance apparently talking Arabic.

back from the mideast

At around 8:30, two men approached me while I was checking my phone. One of them asked me if I had a minute and he showed me his badge, I said: "sure". We walked some few steps and stood in front of the boarding counter where I found out that they were accompanied by another person, a woman from Jet Blue.

One of the two men who approached me first, Inspector Harris, asked for my id card and boarding pass. I gave him my boarding pass and driver's license. He said "people are feeling offended because of your t-shirt". I looked at my t-shirt: I was wearing my shirt which states in both Arabic and English "we will not be silent". You can take a look at it in this picture taken during our Jordan meetings with Iraqi MPs. I said "I am very sorry if I offended anyone, I didnt know that this t-shirt will be offensive". He asked me if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all of my bags and I asked him "why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn't it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?" The second man in a greenish suit interfered and said "people here in the US don't understand these things about constitutional rights". So I answered him "I live in the US, and I understand it is my right to wear this t-shirt".

Gongs on offer for stupid security measures

Human rights watchdog Privacy International has re-launched its hunt for the World's most stupid security measures.

The "Stupid Security" awards aims to highlight the absurdities of so-called security procedures that make little contribution to real security improvements. The international compo aims to unearth the world's most pointless, intrusive, stupid and self-serving security measures.
...
Gongs will be awarded in five categories: the Most Egregiously Stupid Award, Most Inexplicably Stupid Award, Most Annoyingly Stupid Award, Most Flagrantly Intrusive Award and Most Stupidly Counter Productive Award.
...

Airport rules 'costing musicians'

Strict security measures at UK airports are having a "devastating impact" on musicians, says the Musicians' Union.

It says its members "are reporting significant lost earnings" because they are unable to take their instruments on board aircraft as hand luggage.

Many instruments are too fragile to be placed in the hold of an airliner, the union told the BBC News website.

But the Department for Transport says the security regulations will "be in place for as long as they need to be".

Sex Toy In Luggage Gets Man In Trouble

CHICAGO -- Mardin Azad Amin found himself in a tight squeeze last week when security at O'Hare Airport discovered a suspicious-looking object in his luggage.

So Amin, 29, handled the delicate situation this way: He told security the object was a bomb, Cook County prosecutors said.

The security guard then asked Amin to repeat what he'd said to a supervisor. This time, Amin was chuckling as he spoke, prosecutors said.

In fact, Amin was trying to disguise the fact that the black object -- resembling a grenade -- was a component for a penis pump.