Roost Air Lounge => Current Strip => Topic started by: Stef on November 04, 2005, 12:28:51 PM
Title: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: Stef on November 04, 2005, 12:28:51 PM
Well, I'm sure we've all heard this question before. Funnily enough, they don't ALWAYS ask this. Does anyone know if this is depending on different regulations of the specific airline? I do have my doubts about these secuity checks anyway. I mean they're good and for a purpose, but are they really effective? I boarded a plane on September 13th 2001 from Tokyo to Vienna, and as you can imagine, I was a bit nervous that day. I went especially early, because I was expecting a big chaos at the security checks. However, I was much too early, because everything was business as usual and I boarded the airplane with a rather relaxed feeling.
Back home, when I unpacked my carry-on luggage, I discovered that I had my cutting blade in my pencase (I usually carry a lot of pens) in my backpack all the time. Very comforting. I could have defended myself against terrorists!
Of course I swore to myself not to be so thoughtless the next time. But, as I am an forgetful SOB, I forgot. I don't know how many flights I boarded before and after Sept. 2001 with my cutting blade until I finally banned it from my pencase last year. So, anytime I get checked up and down and have to take of my shoes, it does make me feel a little bit safer. But not much...
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: Mike on November 05, 2005, 07:18:07 AM
I've seen a guy in an AOPA forum post that he hasn't been asked that question in 4 years, but I just got asked that question in London 3 weeks ago. Did they really stop asking this question in the US? Any thoughts? :-\
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: Celina on November 10, 2005, 11:08:04 AM
I had a bit of a drama at the Vienna airport, Christmas 2001, when I realized I'd put my penknife (a, old gift, lots of sentimental value) in my handluggage by mistake... Well, I didn't realize it, they realized it for me with the scanner, hee, hee... They wanted me to just leave it behind (I wonder if any of them wanted to keep it for themselves, actually), but in all my confusion someone took pity of me and suggested I went to the airport post office and sent it home via mail. A drama with a happy ending.
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: UNDPilot on November 16, 2005, 05:21:50 PM
I'm a TSA screener... we are not trained to ask those questions.
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: CDNpilot on November 16, 2005, 06:38:32 PM
UNDPilot, are you going to school out there in grand forks.
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: Stef on November 17, 2005, 01:03:28 PM
Well, I guess not all screeners work for the TSA... especially when you're travelling outside of the USA you can hear the question sometimes. You guys know that we're only making fun, right? We're aware that most of the questions and checks are there for a reason. I think the question typically contains things like if you left your luggage unattended or if anybody else has handled it, etc. Which makes some sense, because that happens quite frequently with taxi cab drivers, porters, etc. etc.
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: UNDPilot on November 17, 2005, 10:23:50 PM
CDNpilot... Yeah... flying at U of ND
Stef... I realize it's joking.
The folks I work with love this comic. I show them the site often.
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: Mike on November 21, 2005, 02:55:59 AM
Hey UNDPilot! Good to meet you, man!
I am glad a TSA screener joined us. I sure might have a lot of questions later down the road. I never got to "hang" much with screeners, so I am actually kind of excited. AND I am pretty sure you have some crazy stories to tell!!! ;D I am amazed almost every time about how many idiots you guys have to deal with. Every other time there is a guy in front of me who still doesn't seem to know that he can't bring his Leatherman or pocket knife on the plane. I mean, some of the things I have seen aren't even new since 9/11, they have always been a security check routine. And if I had a nickel for every time somebody goes through the metal detector setting it off because he forgot about his lose change in his pocket, . . .
. . .well. . . . I'd have a sh*&@t load of nickels !!!
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: CDNpilot on November 24, 2005, 11:04:59 PM
Oh that's cool. I have several frinds in the aviation program there at UND.
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: UNDPilot on December 06, 2005, 10:39:50 PM
I would be glad to answer most any question you have...
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: SteepTurn on June 01, 2006, 02:17:13 PM
I am amazed almost every time about how many idiots you guys have to deal with. Every other time there is a guy in front of me who still doesn't seem to know that he can't bring his Leatherman or pocket knife on the plane. (........) And if I had a nickel for every time somebody goes through the metal detector setting it off because he forgot about his lose change in his pocket, . . .
. . .well. . . . I'd have a sh*&@t load of nickels !!!
Oh Mike! I think we have common "friends"!! I know also the guy with his Leatherman or pocket knife!!! I find him - same as you - allways in fronzt of me at the sec. check!!! ;D ;D Also all the people with their lose change in the pocket...
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: ManuPiper on June 07, 2006, 07:49:25 PM
Oh Mike! I think we have common "friends"!! I know also the guy with his Leatherman or pocket knife!!! I find him - same as you - allways in fronzt of me at the sec. check!!! ;D ;D Also all the people with their lose change in the pocket...
I'm guilty, I'm guilty! I had recently installed a satellite dish for a friend, and used my backpack to carry the tools to him. A couple of months later I used the same backpack to put my clothes in for a small one-night trip on FlyBaboo (LUG-GVA). Guess what, I forgot one of the tools in the backpack (it was a wrench, one of the big ones). The X-Ray woman was quite amused - especially because I knew her (I fly out of LUG privately). I just left the wrench there and picked it up when coming back the next day.
I never thought this could happen to *ME*! :)
-Manuel
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: happylanding on June 17, 2006, 09:38:59 PM
Since you were talking about ths kind of mistakes some time ago........you made me remember that once I put my dog (my neighbor's one now!) - a puppy at the time - inside my bag and hopped on a flight with him hidden and free rider :) Just closed the bag, put it in the space under the seat in front of me and flew home...searching inside the bag (checking if he was alive!) from time to time. I was coming home from a vacation and could not make the ticket for him, since the carrier was late and had to jump off a plane, exit the terminal, go to catch my dog (who had been dog sitted), do his ticket, get a cage and all the brouhaha. I would have otherwise lost the connection.... ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: FlyingBlind on July 17, 2006, 01:06:39 PM
The only problem for me, is passing the metal detector....well...because my boots look like this (http://www.aipi.ee/5) and my leather jacket has iron and so does my denim vest i carry on the leather jacket...my beltbuckle says Harley Davidson Motors (lot of metal..)
So whenever i want to board, i have to take off EVERYTHING :(
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: ZAIZAI on July 17, 2006, 03:01:40 PM
Hehe, the question reminds me of a friend of mine. They where going to Florida from Sweden, I think it was coming back from Florida...a guy comes up to them in the check in que and asks who packed their bags. Their handluggage was their riggs, who packs the reserve? Well I do but I was not there, I was in Sweden. So my friend responds: -"Well the big case I packed and I have packed half of this!" Brandishing the rigg. -"Someone else packed the reserve in this..." Guess what happened next, they grab the rigg and my friend, pull the reserve handle before he knows what is going on and starts to ask questions about the CYPRES, while checking the canopy... The CYPRES looks like a detonator with remote trigger if you do not know what it is...hehehe... You can guess the rest.
He did get his stuff back, intact, but it cost him when he got back home since I had to repack the reserve, which I had just done before he left because of that wierd 120 day rule you have in the USA. I would have loved to know how the conversation about the CYPRES went, must have been funny!
Going to be interesting bringing my chainmail over to the UK from Sweden, it is too heavy to pack in my luggage so I have to wear it...I hope they pat me down as I can wear it under a sweater, love to see their faces!! Pat-pat-pat -"Hmmmm, whatta!?!" Pat-pat-pat, tinkle-russel, -"Sir, can you take that sweater off please?" -"No, it's rusted stuck!" Drum roll...
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: Stef on July 17, 2006, 07:18:41 PM
The only problem for me, is passing the metal detector....well...because my boots look like this (http://www.aipi.ee/5) and my leather jacket has iron and so does my denim vest i carry on the leather jacket...my beltbuckle says Harley Davidson Motors (lot of metal..)
So whenever i want to board, i have to take off EVERYTHING :(
Hm, didn't you just say in a post in another thread that you "NEVER ever ever" have taken apublic airplane before?! ??? ???
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: FlyingBlind on July 18, 2006, 12:49:44 AM
And i may (te-heee :-[) flewn once to France with public aircraft....i swear to god it was an accident
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: ZAIZAI on July 20, 2006, 07:31:04 PM
Hey, Flying Blind! Can you recomend any dropzones in the Bristol area?
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: piet03 on September 12, 2006, 08:00:31 PM
I play the bagpipes . You should see their faces when 4 long pipes show up on the screen.
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: Frank N. O. on September 12, 2006, 09:40:22 PM
Piet, I'm really biting my lip not to make references between bagpipe music and terrorism (it would only be a joke of course and actually I think it can be beautiful, but only on tv since my ears are overly sound-sensitive, but actually I can't handle any loud instrument so nothing personal). Judging from your email are you from somewhere on the british isles?
Frank
P.S. I seriously hope you haven't had a situation like Chuck and Julio because of the pipes though.
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: Baradium on September 12, 2006, 10:45:58 PM
P.S. I seriously hope you haven't had a situation like Chuck and Julio because of the pipes though.
Haha!
Security thought the LED light in my night flashlight (cheap with a red lens) looked like an arcing device (like it could be a detonator), so they went through the pocket and got it out. It was really obvious that's what they'd been looking at to them. So no harm. Was somewhat amusing becuase I was in uniform... ;)
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: tundra_flier on September 13, 2006, 04:33:13 PM
Pre 9/11 I was heading back to Alaska after visting the family in the lesser 48 and had one of my Christmas gifts in my carry on. That poor little Phillipino gal at the check gate in Frisco just could not figure out what that dial caliper was. ;) She seemed to think it was some sort of axe. ::)
Actually I'm always nervous about security checks, since most of my carry-ons have been used for camping, fishing or hunting at some point. I'm always worried I missed a spare cartrige in there somewhere, or theres gun powder residue clinging to something. :-[
Phil
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: cj5_pilot on September 13, 2006, 04:41:38 PM
Naw Tundra, you just look like a terrorist. How many times you been pulled out of line for a "random check" now? I think your theory about them flagging pilots is pretty realistic.
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: BrianGMFS on September 14, 2006, 02:35:38 AM
A guy I know from another forum was flying commercially a couple of years ago and was pulled aside for additional screening... Thing was, Todd's the Ohio Army Guards Flight Surgeon and he was in his full US army uniform with medical insignia and wings.... Go figure
Brian
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: Baradium on September 14, 2006, 04:37:02 AM
Guys, it's not that simple...
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: cj5_pilot on September 14, 2006, 03:30:21 PM
I don't know Baradium, I don't have to go through any security checks to get on Frontier in Anchorage or Fairbanks. 'Course where would you hijack a Frontier flight TO?
Terrorist: "I'm hijacking this plane, take me to Fort Yukon!" Pilot: "Yeah, whatever were going to Kotezbue and that's all there is to it. No sit down and shut up or I'll go to Bethel instead."
;D
Sorry, couldn't resist! (apologies to residents of Kotezbue and Bethel....though Kotzebue's runway still bothers me...)
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: tundra_flier on September 14, 2006, 09:09:37 PM
Quote
How many times you been pulled out of line for a "random check" now? I think your theory about them flagging pilots is pretty realistic.
Every time I've gone out of state. >:( A discussion at one of our EAA meetings a year after 9/11 revealed that every pilot there had experienced the same thing. Including the women. The only thing we all had in common was a pilot certificate and living in Alaska. One person suggested it was because of my beard, but I was shaven last time I went to Reno, and they not only pulled me out of line to run the wand over me, the opened my checked baggage - before it got to the x-ray, and wiped it down for explosives residue! (I was pretty nervous about that considering how many times I've tossed a handfull of empty pistol cartriges in one of the pockets)
On the other hand, I've actually got through security quicker each time too. Since they pulled me from the back of the line. 8)
Phil
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: Baradium on September 15, 2006, 01:52:29 AM
I don't know Baradium, I don't have to go through any security checks to get on Frontier in Anchorage or Fairbanks. 'Course where would you hijack a Frontier flight TO?
Terrorist: "I'm hijacking this plane, take me to Fort Yukon!" Pilot: "Yeah, whatever were going to Kotezbue and that's all there is to it. No sit down and shut up or I'll go to Bethel instead."
I was talking about the random security screening. ;)
We don't have TSA, and we aren't required to. An airline operating the same size aircraft in the lower 48 wouldn't have to either. There are some companies in the midwest using them, they may not have TSA either.
Quote
;D
Sorry, couldn't resist! (apologies to residents of Kotezbue and Bethel....though Kotzebue's runway still bothers me...)
I went Nome-Kotz-Point Hope-Kotz-Point Hope-Fairbanks today in the freighter... 8.1 hours flying.
And that runway is interesting. Surrounded on 3 sides by water yet you are coming in over a bluff as well. I don't know how long since you've been in there but Alaska Airlines made them cut down the bluff some, they were worried that their planes were getting too close to it.
Anyway, you seem to have quite a rosy picture on how you'd be treated in your scenario. ;)
Title: Re: "Did you pack your own luggage?" or My own airport security test.
Post by: BrianGMFS on September 15, 2006, 02:17:31 AM
Quote
We don't have TSA, and we aren't required to. An airline operating the same size aircraft in the lower 48 wouldn't have to either. There are some companies in the midwest using them, they may not have TSA either.
At Rutland VT (KRUT) there is a TSA post in the terminal thats staffed with one screener. Comutair flies in there twice a day with Beech 1900D's. Same thing in Platsburgh NY (KPLB) 3 flights a day with 1900's and one screener. I think they screen there is because the passengers on comutair fly to a "major" airline airport from there (Rutland to Laguardia and Platsburgh to Boston) so the passengers on leaving the Comutair flight are already in the secured area past screening to make their conecting flight. Also the airport where I work is pretty vigilant about security/ especialy since there are direct flights from Burlington to both Washington National (Emb 170) and JFK (A-320/ 737)
