Did you hear what the Georgia legislature did?
They voted to allow people – with properly licensed guns – to bring them into that state’s airports.
The non-secure areas of airports, that is, which would include terminals, baggage claim, parking lots and the like.
I don’t like it. See where I’m coming from in “Guns at the Airport: Worst Idea Ever?” and tell me if you agree – or, disagree.
I’m sure by now you’ve heard about the capture of the suspected “Times Square Bomber”.
Maybe not all about it. I mean, do you know how close this guy was to getting out of the country?
It makes you wonder about our airport security. And it makes me incredibly disappointed – and I note in this new article called, “‘We Got Lucky’ is No Way to Conduct Airport Security” – take a look, I think you’ll enjoy it.
Okay, this is getting seriously ridiculous.
Somebody wrote what was considered to be a “threatening message” – a bomb threat of some kind – on a lavatory mirror aboard a Continental flight from Houston to Washington Dulles (actually, this flight was operated by ExpressJet).
There was no bomb, fortunately – but why would anyone do this? Did they want to make a side trip to Greensboro, North Carolina where the flight was diverted to?
A plane load of passengers was totally inconvenienced – just like the people on the Delta flight from Paris Tuesday, after a decorated combat vet allegedly made a bomb threat, causing his flight to divert to Maine.
Regarding that “lavatory mirror threat” – what are the rest of us supposed to do – become bathroom monitors? Take a good hard look at whoever is in the lavatory line ahead of us, so we can ID them later if need be?
I hope not. But it’s getting crazy out there…
Whew – this was a story that needed a good ending, and there is one.
It seems a dog that works with the Norwegian Armed Forces Military Police landed at Washington Dulles Airport with his handler – he was in the U.S. for “additional training” – when he somehow got out of his crate Wed. night and took off outside. And “outside” is a pretty big place at Dulles which has 12,000 acres.
Worse, the dog – a young Doberman – was described by his handler in these chilling terms: “He does bite work.”
Washington’s WTOP TV is reporting that he was finally found and reunited with his military escort, but there is no description of how it happened – did they use a net? Perhaps the promise of a treat? Or a heartfelt, “nice doggie”? I do not know.
Fortunately, there was no mention of any injuries, to hound or handler.
UPDATE: United has apologized.
A strange and awful story reported on Consumerist – awful, if true (and I have no reason to believe it’s a hoax or anything of that nature – there are too many details that could be checked, it seems to me – but we are trying to learn more). It’s certainly creating a lot of buzz.
And I think it’s worth talking about, even though the details are sketchy – because the needs of the disabled just don’t often get a lot of thought from many of us.
Anyway, the story concerns a recent blog post by a self-described “disabled woman” with a spinal injury, who identifies herself as “Rachel D.” She writes that, on a recent United flight, she couldn’t lift her carryon bag into the overhead bin - and asked a flight attendant for help.
She claims this was the flight attendant’s chilly response:
“If I helped everyone do that all day then MY back would be killing me by the end of the day!” I asked her how I was supposed to get my luggage stowed and her answer was: “You’ll just have to wait for someone from your row to come back here and ask them to give you a hand.” When I asked what would happen if no one would, her response to me was: “Well, normally a passenger is around to overhear something like this and they’ll offer to help with it on their own. You’ll just have to ask someone when they get back here.”
Keep reading – it doesn’t get better…
Disabled Woman Says United Flight Attendants No Help
UPDATE: Further reports indicate this was a “misunderstanding” and there was no real threat.
Was this a threat? Or a massive misunderstanding?
ABC is reporting that a diplomat from Qatar – who was on a United flight from Washington to Denver – allegedly said to federal air marshals, “I’m lighting my shoes on fire.”
The man was then wrestled to the ground, while two fighter jets escorted the plane the rest of the way to Denver. The aircraft landed safely.
What first appeared to be a potential threat – possibly a terrorist incident – may turn out to be nothing more than a big misunderstanding, according to ABC. This is from the news organization’s website:
“A US security official said, ‘it may have been a massive misunderstanding’ and the diplomat’s statement may have been a ’sarcastic’ comment when he was confronted by two air marshals who had been told by flight attendants that smoke was coming from the lavatory.” - ABCNews.com, 4-7-10
There is so much we don’t know about this incident that I hesitate to comment, but as a generality, it is never advisable to make any sort of joke about security procedures.
In the wake of the attempted Christmas Day bombing aboard a Northwest plane, the U.S. began mandatory screening of travelers from 14 countries* – but this program has now been scrapped in favor of new security measures announced today.
It’s clearly a more focused approach to security: as reported by Reuters, the new measures call for extra scrutiny of passengers based on “characteristics pulled together by intelligence agencies” as opposed to being a resident of a particular country or a person of a specific nationality. Travelers who match intelligence information on terrorism suspects, including “physical description, partial name or travel patterns” will undergo additional screening.
It’s said that the new security procedures are supposed to “significantly reduce” the number of people pulled aside for extra screening – which could mean quicker lines through international security – and that’s a good thing.
*The 14 countries on the “old” mandatory screening list: Cuba, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.
Cleveland Browns defensive lineman Shaun Rogers told police he “forgot” he had a loaded .45-caliber handgun in his carryon bag – kind of an “oops!” moment, I guess you could say – but TSA security takes a dim view of such things, and he was arrested anyway.
According to WTTG, no charges have been filed yet.
Mr. Rogers could have easily avoided this situation, if only he’d read the TSA’s detailed list of prohibited items.
So what to avoid when packing for your next trip?
Glad you asked. The following are items that cannot go in a carryon bag – but are allowed in a checked-bag:
- box cutters
- ice picks
- knives
- meat cleavers
- swords
- scissors (with blades longer than four inches)
Note that these items must be “sheathed or securely wrapped”.
And, yes, you can travel with a gun – but only in a checked-bag, and only if it is unloaded, and only if it is in a hard-sided case, and only if you declare it at the ticket counter.
