It is precisely for reasons such as this that I have not flown since 1996. And have no plans to in the future. I’d rather drive. Yes, it takes longer and is possibly more expensive but we live in such a beautiful country with nice, friendly people.
Gina, I am sorry to hear about this incident.
You wrote an article about what a fun week you had in pistol shooting and training in AZ.
I stopped flying in Sept. 2002 for this very reason.
I’m a guy, a little overweight. When the TSA guy poked my belly to make sure it was real that was the last straw.
I had flown for 24 years all over the country on business.
But when that incident happened I was filled with rage and had to restrain myself.
I wanted to haul off at the guy, and I’m usually pretty easygoing.
I told my wife—no more flying, because the next time this happens, I will probably cause an incident.
Luckily, I did not have to fly for my new job from then on.
But since then, we drive. I take as much as I want, stop when I want, we have fun along the way.
No waiting in lines, no running for flights about to depart, no airport traffic, no being squished into a flying bus.
I would encourage you to write to your Congresscritter and to the White House.
We all think one voice is meaningless, but one voice among many adds up and change can happen.
The TSA banks on you not making a scene and meekly complying, otherwise you will miss your flight.
They are petty tyrants, and yes, there are perverts among them.
It was a crappy ending to a good trip for you, and for that, you have my sympathy.
What I am amazed at is the lack of uniformity in searches and investigations by TSA crews. I recently flew, and will explain the treatment i received at two different airports.
I have MS. I use a wheelchair in an airport. I also have an implanted Baclofen pump, which is a hockey puck sized device implanted in my abdomen. A plain x-ray will show the device, quite prominently, and also show the catheter that carries the med from the pump to my spine. I also carry a card which I hand to the TSA agent at the very start, and it verifies the pump and my identity as a recipient of the device.
Leaving my home airport, they were concerned about the pump, even though I had given them the card. I was due for a pat down if I didn’t do the full scanner... I can stand and walk short distances so I chose the scanner. I got into the machine and then was asked to raise my arms over my head. I told them that wasn’t going to happen because they don’t raise any higher than my ears. At any rate they were okay with that, and they met me with my wheelchair on the other side...and I was on my way.
Return flight. This TSA crew were obsessed with the wheelchair. The first TSA group had barely even looked at it, I seemed to be the threat. This time my wheelchair seemed to be the threat. I never went through any scan, no pat down, only had my hands swabbed...I don’t even remember them using a hand scanner. But the wheelchair, it endured the “assault.” They swabbed the entire chair, took it apart (I had been asked to sit in a chair they provided) and then put it back together. Once they were convinced my
little travel wheelchair was not the threat, I was on my way.
I’d like to know who decides what is and isn’t a priority in a search, and why one group would target me, and the other crew targeted my wheelchair. Very strange, and absolutely no uniformity....it all seems so subjective and directed by the “whim” of the TSA crew as to if you do or don’t “pass muster.”
Keep muzzies out and this won’t be needed.
Lottery winner. Some TSA bull dyke decided it was time to get her rocks off and the lady was culled from the herd for some feely fun.
When politicians start blathering about how much Islam has contributed to the US, this is pretty much the only real contribution - acts of terrorism which have led to full body scans which violate every norm of privacy, removing shoes and belts like inmates on their first day in prison, and staggering out afterward, shoes in hand and trying to keep your pants up. Thanks for enriching America, Islam!
Abolish TSA.
I love to fly, but I don’t anymore since TSA. If I can’t drive there, I don’t need to go there. I have missed many adventures because of this -— but not the adventure of going to jail for backhanding some TSA groper who had their hands where they didn’t belong!!!
My "physical intrusion" also involved groping between my legs, both front and back, though it included unhooking the waistband of my slacks and opening the front zipper, after first patting the area down!
She then proceeded to put her hand down the back of my pants, presumably to check the manufacturer's label, then doing the same thing with my underpants!!!!
All this occurred while I stood on my one foot as the other one was broken - the reason for the aircast and crutches!
I was demanding to know what in the world gave her the opinion that I was carrying something in my underpants. She respinded that if I "couldn't go through the scanner, then they had to make certain I wasn't carrying anything there!"
My situation didn't didn't occur because a TSA agent found something that needed further "checking," (those full body scans weren't in use then, other than one or two sites) but rather because I was wearing an aircast and using crutches. The TSA agent informed me, as I sat in an airport wheelchair, that she would "need to do a "personal check," as I was unable to go through the scanner wearing a cast, while on crutches and asked whether I wished to to be done between the two XRay machines in public or I could opt for a "private" thorough examination.
I was privately seething being treated as a guilty terrorist but determinded to cooperate and speed up the process, opted to do a public examination.
This Darwin reject proceeded to "pat down" my ticket sleeve and the airline's own wheelchair, presuming they contained contraband!
While I was white-hot with anger at this physical man handling and assault, I knew if I let her know the level of my anger, I'd most likely be kicked off my flight and possibly even being arrested and chose to be quiet and continue on to the wedding of my friend's son.
If a total stranger patted down my crotch, front and back, unzipped my slacks and stuck her/his hand down my pants, you'd better believe I would contact the police and report a sexual assault, insisting on the arrest of the perp and charges brought.
Complete strangers, however, merely because they are government employees regardless of their sex, are free to molest everyone, regardless of age, sex, or condition merely because I need to purchase a seat on an airplane, is unconscionable.
Before they muster the courage to bulldoze bodies into pits, they must first dehumanize you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEhHeILa3HE
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Thanks for your candor.
If you decide to start a petition asking Congress and President Trump to shut down this TSA nightmare, I’m sure you will get tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of signers.
I will.
You’re not the first person to have this type of TSA behavior happen to and you certainly won’t be the last. You bought a ticket to fly and you knew (I hope) that you would be going through a security checkpoint. You made a deal with the devil, the devil this time wanted to play.
I carry a card that shows my spare parts in x-ray form but it makes no difference at all. I always set off all the bells and whistles. I get grouped squeezed and have my gonads about half crushed every damn time I try to fly commercial.
I've been warned that if I make too much of a fuss over it I will be placed on a no fly list and not allowed to fly anymore.
Hey Mr government, your F-ing welcome for my service and the pieces and parts of me I sacrificed for my country. Thanks for molesting me every time I try and exercise one of the freedoms I fought for.
Gina. I’m so pissed off after reading your story!
I’m sorry that ASSAULT, yes Strac6, it was an ASSAULT, happened to you!
TSA in nothing more than a “make work” program started by the “brilliant” GWB administration.
I stopped flying in 2008 and will NEVER fly again!
Unless this useless agency is disbanded. ...
FAKE NEWS: I fly 1 to 2 times a month, and travel through all the big airports, including Sky Harbor in Phoenix, on a regular basis. I have two artificial hips and several pins, screws, and staples in my shoulders, and as a result I always ask for the the so-called “rape scan” so as not to set off the alarm on the traditional x-ray system. In 50% of the airports through which I travel, the “rape scan” is unavailable, and as a result, I am the frequent subject of a manual search.
The current version of the “rape scan” shows a very generic and unflattering schematic of the M/F human body that does not distinguish between body types (i.e., fat people look the same as thin people). (I flew through Sky Harbor two weeks ago.) But the “rape scan” is very sensitive and will pick up everything from lint balls to fingernail clippings. When the “rape scan” tests positive, TSA has no idea whether the person is a white Muslim terrorist from Kosovo or a dark-skinned Episcopalian from South-Africa. If there is a positive reading, then the TSA officer must take the exam to the next step, because terrorists (who are almost always Muslims) come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and genders.
The hand-check around the waistband intruded a mere .50 inches into my junk space. All of the TSA officers have been very professional about the procedure, and most have been apologetic. The TSA has ALWAYS offered me a private area for the pat-down.
And what does the TSA agent’s race have to do with anything? Is the “rape scan” more offensive because the TSA agent was a black woman instead of a white woman?
With that said, the TSA should adopt the Israeli security protocol. We recently traveled through Rome and was pleasantly surprised at that Italy has adopted the Israeli approach to Airport screening.
Quite frankly, I think this is total BS from an over-sensitive person looking to start a high-volume thread. Get over yourself. We have not suffered a successful airport terrorist attack within an airport secure zone in quite some time. While TSA has plenty of room to improve, I would say that the TSA has been effective.
Fire away.
Mr Kitty worries things like this the very few times we’ve flown. Because he knows I would pull up my shirt, drop my pants and yell “Go ahead, feel me up!!” and then start making loud moaning noises when they touched me.
I may be old and small, but, dang, I’m still feisty.
Because of the shooting event, could the scanner have picked up gun residue on your clothes?