Secure Areas in Airports

[Diver Dennis]

When we give our luggage to the agent at check-in, they put it on the conveyer belt and we watch it disappear into the bowels of the airport. It should be in a secure area, right? Yet I hear horror stories of lost luggage, a lot. If luggage can go missing in secure airport areas don't you think that all the money we are spending through our governments is a bit of a joke? Luggage might be mis-placed but to loose it all together makes me think that if someone can steal luggage or even items out of luggage they could just as easily place a bomb onside someone's bag or switch a passengers bag with a bag of explosives.
No system is perfect but travelling with camera equipment in Pelican cases and having other divers warn me that "you are just asking for someone to steal your housing because they target those types of cases" worries me. In my opinion if we can't lock our bags anymore because of security concerns and we can't trust secure areas to keep our bags from being stolen or pilfered, we are no better off, airport security wise, than before this "War on Terrorism" started.

 

[peaceful]

You can still lock up your luggage if you are checking it. You need to first check in, have them inspect your bag with you there, then the airlines can put a security clearance tape on it and then you are allowed to lock it up. However with that said, I always carry mine on with me along with my reg and computer.

 

[fdog]

<snip> If luggage can go missing in secure airport areas don't you think that all the money we are spending through our governments is a bit of a joke? <snip>

Yes.

I place the security of my checked luggage at roughly the same level of an unlocked car in a parking lot.

Which puzzles me, since I seem to subject myself to it so often....

All the best, James

 

[JamesD]

No system is perfect but travelling with camera equipment in Pelican cases and having other divers warn me that "you are just asking for someone to steal your housing because they target those types of cases" worries me. In my opinion if we can't lock our bags anymore because of security concerns and we can't trust secure areas to keep our bags from being stolen or pilfered, we are no better off, airport security wise, than before this "War on Terrorism" started.

You are talking about a number of completely separate things here. First off the secure area that your luggage disappears into is secure in that people who aren't authorized can't get in, that doesn't mean that things can't get out (i.e. your luggage in the hands of an employee!)

We ARE no safer after this "war on terror" in regards to things being stolen from our bags. We are (at least supposedly) safer from terrorists putting bombs in bags.

I rarely hear of luggage going missing completely, it normally does turn up, however things disappearing from your bag, may perhaps be more common. First off if you do find anything going missing, make sure you file a report with the TSA (travelling abroad may make this one MUCH harder to get any movement on) and try to keep any valuables with you in carry on luggage.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Diver Dennis]

You are talking about a number of completely separate things here. First off the secure area that your luggage disappears into is secure in that people who aren't authorized can't get in, that doesn't mean that things can't get out (i.e. your luggage in the hands of an employee!)

We ARE no safer after this "war on terror" in regards to things being stolen from our bags. We are (at least supposedly) safer from terrorists putting bombs in bags.

I rarely hear of luggage going missing completely, it normally does turn up, however things disappearing from your bag, may perhaps be more common. First off if you do find anything going missing, make sure you file a report with the TSA (travelling abroad may make this one MUCH harder to get any movement on) and try to keep any valuables with you in carry on luggage.

Just my 2 cents.

If the only people that can get into these areas are authorized then you should be able to trust them. If they are stealing things how can you trust them?
If they can get out with luggage or stolen goods why could they not bring something in the same way? If an employee was leaving through one of the secure entrances, where he came in and was checked for ID, he would be leaving the same way. It would be pretty tough not to be seen tossing luggage over a fence and if they could do that, why couldn't someone enter the airport that way?
My point is that if we can't trust the people who work in these secure areas, have we not defeated the purpose of having them in the first place? We should not have to worry about having things stolen from secure areas.

 

[JamesD]

Should not, yes I agree.

Can not, absolutely not, I think I read somewhere the statistic on employee theft is about 80% given opportunity.

Have you looked how secure areas in airports work? Most of the time (from what I can tell) they just need the code to get through the door, while they might have to have gone through background checks to make sure they aren't a terrorist (and maybe have to go through a scanner to make sure they don't have guns/bombs) when was the last time you had to go through a scanner to exit an airport? The only time I've ever had to is when I've flown in international, had to pickup luggage (to go through customs) and then re-enter a secure area, and really I wasn't going through a scanner to exit, more going through a scanner to get back into a secure area.

Even if they check ID, do they check every bag an employee has with them for items to make sure every item is really that employees. Employees COULD walk in with an empty rucksack at the start of the day, and walk out with a bag full of cameras, while this is unlikely and fairly quickly I would figure they would get found out and caught, it doesn't strike me as outside of the realms of possibility.

The secure area is secure to things getting IN, not things getting out (at least that's my understanding).

 

[Diver Dennis]

First off, I'm talking about airport personnel, not passengers, so it doesn't matter if we go through scanners or not. I live most of the year in Puerto Vallarta. Most of the stores you go into there, including grocery stores, do not allow you to take any type of bag into the store. There is a check area where you leave your bags. They do this at airports as well.
The point of secure areas is to defend against any tampering with checked baggage. If things are being stolen, and they are, there is a big problem with secure areas.

 

[Damselfish]

Again, the point of secure areas is more to keep things out than in.

Basically, we're trusting them to limit themselves to petty theft.

 

[cdiver2]

As has been stated the area (baggage leading out to the ramp) is secure, all personnel in these areas have to wear a badge and it MUST be visible, if not your out of there immediately. Don't believe it just go through the little hole where your bags come on to the conveyor and see how far you get.

Having said this ANYONE having a pass to get beyond public areas can get to your bags. This would include baggage handlers that put it onto carts to go to the respective aircraft, the people that load the aircraft, people that clean the cabin, people that put the food on the aircraft, people that empty the toilets, refuelers, gate agents, personnel that issue your ticket, control tower personnel, people that load & unload mail, security personnel, TSA agents, mechanics and a host of others. There are literally thousands of vehicle's going in and out of the secured areas every day.

Most of these people that work out there are on minimum wage or very low on the pay scale, so the solution may be to give them a hefty pay raise so that stealing is not worth losing there job for. Then of course we will all be in the whine & cheese complaining about the airfares.

 

[mjh]

Got this idea from someone else. Used zipties to close luggage. On the top of everything had note in red letters, 48 type size with zipties taped to it.

Dear TSA or Customs Official:

Could you please use the attached zipties, or ones used by your agency, to reseal this item. Thank you so much for the work you do.
Sincerely,
Martin & Julie

A little cheesy but they did it and two inspectors wrote notes on the sheet wishing us a happy vacation.