Let’s see… computer, mouse, camera, mp3 player, digital alarm clock, cell phone, electric shaver, battery powered beard trimmer, assorted chargers and power bricks. And those are the things I can think of without checking, plus your Uncle Dave isn’t as wired as a lot of younger folks. Yup, unloading all this stuff and repacking it is REALLY going to speed up the process. I guess I could put it all in checked luggage so the baggage handlers can feast on my stuff like last time I did that…
New TSA Screening: Empty Out All Your Electronics
The TSA is testing a new level of security screening at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and it requires you to take every electronic component out of your carry-on luggage and put it in a separate bin, reader John tells us. He writes:
“According to the TSA this is a new test program designed to speed up the screening of carry on-baggage…”
“…but, based on my observations, it’s not real clear on how this is going to speed things up as each bag had to be passed through the X-Ray, all of the electronics people forgot about removed and placed in a separate tray, then both the bag and the tray X-Rayed again.
The TSA could not explain how they thought this would speed things up but they seemed sure that this additional screening will make all of traveling lives much easier, “once everyone gets used to it.”
If this plan gets deployed nationally, travelers who like to bring a lot of gadgets on-board will have to put up with the hassle or rethink their packing strategies..
After reading crap like this for years isnt it a little scary that the brilliant minds at TSA are responsible for our safety?
I hate it when you have a 3 foot table worth of runway to undress, place all the crap on a box and then carry all 5 boxes to the hole.
Recommendations to make it better:
(1) Longer run way
(2) Have 6 of those 13 TSA goons standing around serve refreshments and bagels.
(3) Make republicans wait behind democrats for causing this chaos in the first place.
(4) Woman who try to smuggle their 12oz liquids and shit are immediately sent to the back of the line until they get it right.
You may have a single 1-quart clear plastic bag of electronics…
The reason behind these changes is that the TSA is tired of being embarrassed by failing to detect most bomb components when tested. So they will make it ever more inconvenient to fly. If nobody flies, they win because nobody will smuggle anything.
Yet we will still be hit with a massive truck bomb at a large gathering somewhere.
Can anyone please explain why we have been at the elevated “Condition Orange” for two years now, with no imminent threat in all that time?
Under the current administration, the American population is being treated like a bunch of orphans under the control of an evil headmaster. “More soup please” we ask timidly, as we ask for reasonable security back, only to be treated like ignorant traitors.
My prayer today:
Lord, please create a time warp and allow us to jump ahead 12 months so we can finally vote these Republican fear mongering criminals out of office, allowing us to bring America back into your grace.
I still think the TSA management sits around a table getting stoned and throwing out ideas on how to fuck with us. They just want to look like they are protecting us, but they are really more interested in looking important and bossing people around.
It still eats my liver that the TSA issue went so badly. WHen we implemented the TSA we (at least I) hoped that we’d replace the losers that were screening passengers with professionals of the caliber of the Customs Service, or at the very least the Border Patrol. Instead we got this pack of slack-jawed pissants.
The system (and not only this one) is broken and needs to be fixed.
7,
Hope springs eternal.
Thank FSM I don’t fly commercial any more!
Every day the reasons why not get more and more reinforcement.
My solution is, get a diesel VW (50mpg HWY) and DRIVE. F the TSA and airlines!
>(3) Make republicans wait behind democrats for causing this chaos in the first place.
It was Democrats that insisted on federalizing airport security.
I think this idea will shorten lines, since so many people will stop flying.
I have just recently traveled to India, Brazil, Turkey and the US. Take a guess which one was the most disorganized?
The US
India – New Delhi and Mumbai (Bombay) were very smooth – no removal of shoes but the laptop had to be taken out. While we were in India there were two terrorist attacks in other cities so we fully expected the airport to be a mess…it wasn’t. The only thing we noticed the gate is not listed on your boarding pass – it is announced 30 minuted before boarding time.
Turkey – Istanbul – very smooth and simple – my wife had no problems with her lip gloss – not so in the US
Brazil – Immigration very slow but the security check was very smooth.
The US – long security check lines – understaffed. On the Chicago to Shanghai trip at O’Hara only one TSA security person checking the X-ray and bags for a mile long line. The other mile long line had two staff and one TSA guy standing around looking confused at the ONE metal detector! Un-fricken-believable! This is a busy international airport – O’Hare, Chicago!
I firmly believe Americans put too way too much importance on their perceived democracy / freedom…its all a government con job…look at the results. My family in the states told me “But we are at war”… 😆 ok but with who?
Cheers
Whatever happened to telecommuting so we didn’t have to worry about airplanes and the TSA? And isn’t this why we have cameras in our computers?
I’m starting to believe this is the real reason for 9/11 — a gov’t conspiracy to restore air travel to travellers, not business folk who have sophisticated ways of doing business electronically.
13 – In Bangkok, last month, they wouldn’t let me through security with my half full bottle of water. The young lady was very apologetic but offered me a plastic cup so I could drink my water before I boarded the plane. Maybe not secure but damned nice.
As for removing all electronics? What possible good could it do? A circuit board looks like a circuit board whether it’s a calculator or a bomb timer. Modern explosives can be molded into many shapes. You could easily reduce the size of a laptop battery leaving enough juice to boot it up and still arm the bomb you’ve put into the remaining space.
Oh, poop! I hope TSA isn’t reading this….
Speaking of poop: couldn’t a dedicated terrorist shape a lump of plastique to resemble feces and then insert it up his rectum?
Next: All travelers will required to submit to an enema….
#4 has it, I think. What self-respecting terrorist would stand in a TSA line when truck bombs are so easy to assemble?
And, yes, you can put a LOT of blame on the current Republican administration but it was, indeed, the Democrats who brought us the TSA in all it’s feeble-minded glory.
I’m not going to fly, not because of terrorists, but the possibility that through no fault of my own, I could run afoul of the security theater currently in place. The current financial crunch the airlines are griping about doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies about aircraft service and repair scheduling either. I’m sure that a majority of foreign travelers to the US the last several years have had such wonderful experiences with it, that they will NEVER come back here if there’s any way for them to avoid it.
So much for those tourist dollars.
This crap is almost enough to make me want to get back into the charter air biz.
BubbaRay Flight 101 is pleased to announce its departure from Addison Airport to Houston Hobby. If you don’t have at least 5 electronics items w/ power bricks in your carry-on luggage, you’re gonna have to go back for more.
Tihz, nice and convenient, except they don’t tell you your gate until a little before boarding, putting everyone in one spot. Plus if it’s busy you have a line just to get into the airport, where everyone must have a ticket to go in.
#11, Mental Midget MikeN,
What a flaming a—hole. How effen soon the conservatives all jump ship and decry that something effed up wasn’t their idea. So what is it, you didn’t vote for Bush either ? You didn’t want to go into Iraq ? Gonzales was a bad AG and Rummy was a bad Secretary of Defense ?
The idea for the TSA came out of the WHITE HOUSE ya effen tool !!!
#19 We thought the gate announcement would have been a mad rush but it wasn’t at all. We had already cleared security and they announced the gate about 30 minutes before boarding (and on the TV monitors) and we got up and went off to that gate and had plenty of time – we sat down at the gate and waited to board.
We travel a lot for business and we cringe every time we have a connection or trip to the US – its a mess, overbooked flights, long lines and the TSA circus.
Cheers