Tidings Of Comfort & Joy

[redbrunja]

 After the failed Northwest Airlines bombing, the TSA tightened up its regulations, requiring that all flights in the US and coming to the US had every passenger patted down prior to boarding and carry only one item onboard, which will be searched by hand prior to boarding. Additionally, during the last hour of the flight, passengers are not allowed to leave their seats, access their luggage, or use handheld electronics, and must sit with their hands in plain view.

What this tells me is that the TSA is fairly clueless on how to keep travelers safe.

I am all for bumping up safety when attacks or threats happen; but the epic delays and cancellations that occurred when these new restrictions came into effect leads me to infer that the TSA does not have the infrastructure to deal with threats, which is ridiculous when you realize they have had nine years since September 11th.

And as for keeping your hands in sight and not using electronics during the last hour – frankly, that is treating people like criminals. I have a very emotional reaction to this; all I can think about is that after paying for an expensive ticket, taking an abnormal amount of time to prove that you are a.) who you say you are and b.) safe to have on a plane, you are treated like a prisoner being transported from one jail to another.

Furthermore, all it seems to do is show that the TSA safety procedures do not work. Or the TSA doesn't have faith that they do, if they think that after going through three different screening processes, they still believe there is a reasonable probability that passengers are carrying hazardous materials.

Finally, I have a huge problem with how mum the TSA is being about why they tightened restrictions and even WHAT the tightened restrictions are. One of the callers on NPR today flew in from Charles de Galle and commented that if he hadn't been a journalist and had access to the wires, he wouldn't have know what was going on.

Comments

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

I had a friend who had to travel back (home) during this holiday, and the delays were so bad she was in line for over three hours, and when she got to the desk, the Delta airport worker literally told her he didn't believe her that she had been in line that long and refused to let her into the boarding area behind security. Justifible gets a little upset;there are some tears. She notices the first class line is empty, so goes to see if the worker there might be of some help. The man there tells her, "There's a bathroom right over there. I want you to go in there and take a look at your face. Then you're going to see why I won't help you."She had to leave without ever getting on a plane or any refunds. Eventually she did manage several days later to get a flight and had camera equipment stolen.

The sad thing was, this was before the most recent attack; Delta had chosen this holiday season to implement their new screening process. I think, because there is relatively little competition between airlines or even from other forms of transportation, they feel they there is no recourse costumers can take, and once you have a ticket and are in midst of a journey you are even more at mercy to any lack of customer service.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God.

Did he say that to her because of her skin color? That miserable little fucker. I want to find him and beat the racist dickhead right out of him. I'm certainly not flying Delta anytime EVER.

She had to leave without ever getting on a plane or any refunds. Eventually she did manage several days later to get a flight and had camera equipment stolen.

Oh god. That poor, poor girl.

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

That miserable little fucker. I want to find him and beat the racist dickhead right out of him.

Can I help? I find things like that are always more successful as a group activity.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Sure! The more the merrier!