TSA and the transmitter, a short travel story

[SoCalSwami]

mrsmitty13, Thanks for the well thought out post, you clearly put some time into it.

Do you plan to stay with the TSA once your finished with college? I for one would like to have a off-duty official available to discuss future issues with.

... and comply with the rules set forth.

Yes, this is the key issue. My equipment is in compliance with the rules, but because most TSA agents have never seen scuba gear, they have no guidance on how to inspect the gear.

Items like can lights, strobes and Li-Ion battery packs are just a few of the items that look VERY suspicious and cause much consternation with agents. I list Li-Ion batteries because the new ELC rule was difficult for me to comprehend and I'm an engineer.

My issue with the TSA is the unpredicatability how individual agents (both good and bad seeds) will react to these "suspicious" items, and the result if they don't like my item. As you pointed out, the TSA is the only game in town, if they tell you your $1500 can light is contraband, your left with the choice of surrendering the light or missing your flight, neither of which is acceptable to me.

There is no one for me to ask about the ok-ness of a unique item until I'm in line and it's too late. If I don't have a ticket or boarding pass, I can't even get into the screen process area to check in advance of my flight to check if an item is legal or not and how the agents will/would react.

On a personal level, I built a small can light that arguablly "looks" like a bomb, or at least a deadly weapon:
Compact 500 Lumen LED - The Dive Matrix Forums
On my last flight, I was worried about them confiscating the light so I shipped it ahead of time to my hotel, something I shouldn't have to.
But, how do I get confirmation ahead of time that this light won't be confiscated? Currently I don't.

 

[fppf]

Mrsmitty13

While I think we all thank you for you post, I have some issues with it.

My wife and I fly on a regular basis, I also fly for work.
I see FAR more TSA agents being A holes to customers then your nice painted picture of helping old ladies cross the street and parents with kids. I am always nice polite and professional dealing with the TSA, its in my best intrest as I always have scuba gear or a huge amount of computer and electronic equipment with me. Most times I find the TSA agents very stand off, grumpy, rude, and demading. Very rarely do I hear a "please" or a "thank you", I hear SIR TAKE YOUR LAPTOP OUT OF THE BAG. Any time a question is asked an answer is returned with attitude and sometimes an eye roll. Not everyone flies all the time, and no one understands all the rules, not even the agents.

I also experiance a lot more variation than doing 75 in a 65. For the longest time I had to take my dam crocks off at every airport, but not at my home airport? I don't know what to expect everytime I fly. It sucks, it would be nice to be able to know what and what is not going to cause me hassel. This would also help the agents, because they always get more pissy when you don't do something they think you should just know.

As for the socks and crocks, I wear the socks so I don't pickup some wierd foot fungus from everyone else going bare foot. I wear the crocks because the TSA thinks that some how I can fit a bomb in them and needs to xray them???

 

[letterboy]

With the laptop thing, they have big signs in all the airports I have ever flown from that tell you BEFORE you get anywhere near the xray machine you have to remove your laptop from any bag. . . Could it be because NO ONE PAYS ATTENTION TO THE DARN SIGN? It is only eye ball height . . . and right in front of the machines . . .

 

[Flightlead]

They are only doing it to keep terrorist on their toes . . .

Good one!

 

[Flightlead]

Yeah, its almost a joke with them sometimes, airport "security" is far from "secure".
For example....
I know a buddy that made a round trip to FL and back with his dive knife on his regulators, which he carried on. They even did the swab test and did not notice the knife. He did not do this on purpuse, but still, what a miss, and TWICE!

I have my own tale.....
My wife and I always travel together, this involved her as well.
To start, I never set off a metal detector, never. Well, the dam thing goes off 3 times. Only thing on me that was metal was the button on the front of my shorts and the zipper. So figure that out to start with. So needless to say, I get pulled to the side for a pat down. They even patted down my socks, which made me laugh. While this is happening the other TSA screener is giving my wife the 3rd degree that she has liquids in her bag, which she does not. My wife just tells them "if you think there are liquids in there, unpack the whole bag". So they did, they spent 10 minutes going through the whole bag. The contents of the bag was a regulator set, plastic Ikelite camera housing, small camera, and cloths. They did not find anything, because there was nothing to find. Now here is the kicker... MY bags, the guy who needed a pat down and treated like a total threat.... My bag has an all aluminum camera housing, strobes, regulators, strobe arms, chargers... Stuff I know there Xray can not see through, theres no way. Yeah, my bag was not opened, they did not ask about it, just took it off the belt and on my way. You would think if they wasted the time to pat down a guy in jean shorts, tee shirt, and crocks, you would take the time to figure out what all those black blobs are in his carryon?

you were wearing shorts, crocks, and socks? No wonder you got pulled

At least tell me they weren't black, knee high dress socks

 

[Jim Lapenta]

All of this would be greatly reduced if they would just start actively profiling for those who seem to have the greatest tendency to do the bad stuff.

 

[fppf]

No, just white gym socks, thanks

Oh geez, yeah just what I want, big brother keeping even more track of me.

 

[Cacia]

Isreal says we should look for terrorists not potential weapons

I like the idea of voluntary pre-flight computer checks

You don't want to? fine, you get to do the line

Our policies and procedures truly are consistent nationwide.

There is an agrument to made that "screening" should NOT be consisitent.

 

[DandyDon]

With the laptop thing, they have big signs in all the airports I have ever flown from that tell you BEFORE you get anywhere near the xray machine you have to remove your laptop from any bag. . . Could it be because NO ONE PAYS ATTENTION TO THE DARN SIGN? It is only eye ball height . . . and right in front of the machines . . .

I know, but now you don't if you have it in the OK bags pictured...
[c]

[/c]
You do if you have in the other bags pictured in my earlier post.

 

[Flightlead]

Unfortunately just like any other organization (whether it be government or a private company) you have some bad seeds

undoubtedly true. as a milion miler I've certainly run into good and bad tsa staff, takes a pretty bad tsa staffer to come even close to the typical customs officer though ...

In a class I took last semester entitled "police process," we talked about the public's general opinion of local, state and federal police agencies. The question was asked if you had to put them in order from the best to the worst, how would you order them. In general, most people would order them with the best being federal, and the worst being local. Why? It is because of the interaction and intrusion into our daily lives.

have to disagree there. I interact pretty regularly with secret service, fbi, state, and local le. the barrier to becoming an officer is significantly higher with the federal agencies. in fact that list is pretty much in decreasing order of difficulty. because of the barriers to joining, and the training, the "dumb bully" mentality gets weeded out much more at the higher levels and you get much more professional types.

While the TSA in it's early years may have been focused on every little pair of scissors that couldn't cut butter, the agency is focusing on what is really important. Nobody is going to take down a plane anymore with a swiss army knife, it will be with a IED or at least a firearm. This is what the TSA is focusing on.

doubt it will be anything carried on, although I can conceive of a gas powered projectile weapon coming onboard, possibly as components (some interesting toys as ASIS this week ASIS 2008). frankly, you can't stop everything that could be a weapon, and I know plenty of ways to kill someone with a ballpoint pen or a newspaper. The most significant risk is probably something coming on during catering/cleaning service, followed by frieght, followed by checked baggage. Positive Bag Matching has helped a little there a bit.

To conclude, the best advice would be to have a positive attitude and comply with the rules set forth in the first place. If you go through security with a chip on your shoulder, don't expect the officers to treat you positively. Even the the most positive of us with the most positive of attitudes do not show respect to those who do not show it back to us. While it is true that there are those bad seeds that do work for the TSA and there is a chance you may encounter one of them, there is a greater chance you will encounter an officer who will show you the respect you deserve if you are willing to put your preconceived notions aside and work with instead of against the officer in front of you that is trying to keep you safe.

agree 100%. tough to do sometimes, but you catch more flies with honey etc etc.