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

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

I work in the luggage department of a department store, and you would be shocked just how much Australians are dumfounded by TSA regulations. I usually only mention the locks, but also reccomend that they check the website. Sometimes they get offended, despite the fact that I am doing everything I can to make sure they're informed when coming to the US.

And then they ask why the TSA has the rules they do, and after the end of these discussions I pretty much say: "Please don't kill the messenger."

So yes. The rest of the world is baffled by the TSA. Hell, us Americans are baffled by the TSA!

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Unsurprising!

I was actually going to mention how much I dislike the TSA inflicting their regulations on other countries and airports.

Again, if I believed what they were doing was effective, I might have a different pov about it.