TSA Stupidity

[fnfalman]

I wouldn't piss on the TSA if they were on fire.

These are the morons that wanted to keep Joe Foss the WWII Medal of Honor winner from boarding a plane because he had his Medal of Honor with him - the medal has pointy tips.

 

[austriandiveress]

In Europe we always have problems with our dive lights; some airlines make you pack them in checked baggage, some in carry on. Sometimes they have to be taken apart (the theory being they could turn themselves on during a flight, overheat and ignite the checked baggage), sometimes you are supposed to leave them put together... you never know.
Years ago (well before 9/11) my boyfriend was on a flight to the Sudan with many other divers. Of course the airline confiscated all of the knives (apparantly some were in carry ons), and then, shortly before the landing a flight attendant came through the cabin with all the knives on a silver tray and the passengers were to take their knives back! Bizarre...

 

[HowardE]

A hallmark of a rebreather that it has self contained cylinders.

Um... Not quite. The cylinders - while small (like 19cu ft or so) are regular scuba tanks. They all have to come off of the unit for filling. They're just tanks. A lot of travel destinations are starting to have rebreather bottles, so that RB divers don't have to tote tanks.

It does seem a bit naive to expect to take a rebreather on a plane, so I wouldn't hold TSA completely responsible if someone doesn't bother to confirm the carry-on rules beforehand. Continental even has explicit rules regarding what gear can go in checked luggage:

I guess this brings up a related question: just how do people normally travel with rebreathers?

People usually fly with them. They can be either carried on, or checked. My friend Richie wrote this up, and has it laminated on the inside of his rebreather box:

TO THE ATTENTION OF THE TSA AGENT WHO IS INSPECTING THIS BAG



This baggage contains SCUBA DIVING equipment and may include some small cylinders, (SCUBA TANKS), under water light systems and a HIGHLY SENSITIVE re-breather LIFE SUPPORT diving computers.

As per TSA regulations:


All of the cylinders are EMPTY and the valves have been removed and placed in another bag.

The batteries have been disconnected and removed from the light systems.

Some of this equipment is not made to be disassembled.

The components are sealed for underwater usage. If you attempt to disassemble them you will damage or destroy them.

If you have questions regarding this equipment, please page me over the public address system or call my cell phone -----------,

Thank you for making our air travel safer,


Sincerely,


xxxxxxxxxx

My friend who uses this note, has hundreds of rebreather dives, and has traveled the world with his rebreather. No problems.

I even have a friend who got an inconel sphere on the plane as carry on. If ever you've seen something that looks like a thing that wile e coyote bought from ACME to huck at the road runner... this would be it.

 

[Gilldiver]

I have a very common name, so I'm on "the list" and I'm sure there is a special code on my boarding pass. I get pulled aside and checked out on most flights; it's happened to me in USA, Europe and Australia. I can't "e-ticket" and MUST go through the ticket counter to get a boarding pass every time I fly - talk about a pain in the butt. I try to take it in stride and luckily I enjoy arriving at the airport way ahead of time; rushing is not my style.

I also have one, Peter Johnson, and some scumbag with that name and a birth date close to mine (month and year) is on the list. I usually had problems with check in and coming back through NY from Europe, immigration was always a toss up. If you think TSA is bad, you have not dealt with bad, or had a bad time, till you deal with immigration. You are guilty, guilty, guilty till they figure you are not. Say 30 minutes on a good day to 3 or 6 hours on a bad one.

I do a few things now, all tickets are book with my full name, this includes my full middle name, and I always carry my passport for any flight, international or domestic. The last 2 times through immigration have gone OK since I started using my full middle name. I'll let you know how the next time goes in 2 weeks.

As for airport security, the US has nothing on Russia and Turkey. In Russia I have gone through 3 x-ray lines (at the airport entrance, at check in, and at the aircraft). Turkey is not as bad, but expect to be hand searched at any time. As for hand searching, Poland does it the most (but the Polish Border Guards have a high percentage of tall very looking Blond and Brunet Women guards, kind of makes you want a body pat down).

 

[ItsBruce]

Is this real? Really? But not a rebreather, well, insanity knows no limits. N

It is real. But, I'll go one better. A family acquaintance is a 747 pilot. Shortly after 9/11, he had his nail clippers confiscated by TSA. He asked why. TSA explained they had a sharp point. He responded that there is a fire axe next to him in the cockpit. It made no difference.

I suppose it all has to do with discretion. If the inspectors do not have discretion to interpret the rules, no one can say they are discriminating, profiling, etc. when they let a war hero carry a medal aboard, but don't let someone else.

While there are a lot of pretty good, competent and conscientious inspectors with TSA, (Boise is a good example), there are a lot who should not have discretion. Again, not letting any of them use discretion avoids charges of discrimination, etc.

 

[Kingpatzer]

I wouldn't piss on the TSA if they were on fire.

These are the morons that wanted to keep Joe Foss the WWII Medal of Honor winner from boarding a plane because he had his Medal of Honor with him - the medal has pointy tips.

AND they wanted to confiscate and destroy the medal, and were refusing to even allow him to mail it until several levels up the ladder finally clued in as to how stupid they were about to look.

It's all security theater and of no practical value other than to mess with the average person in some kind of Stalinesque "show us your papers" masquerade to convince the average, security ignorant person that they are doing something useful.

 

[Doubler]

Last week on my return from Belize through Houston, I decided to go out side for a quick smoke. As I entered the security line I get selected for the "Nekked" machine. Take off shoes, belt, everything out of my pockets. I am holding my ticket and Passport in my hand, as I enter the scanner the TSA agent tells me to put my Passport and ticket in my pocket, so I do. Enter the machine, fill them full of eye candy, NOT, and step out. When I get out the TSA agent in a very irritated tone tells me," Stand over here". I do, and under go the "perp Pat Down". After all this was over I asked him what was the purpose of the total body scan machine if I get a pat down anyway. This twit tells me that I had some papers in my shirt pocket, at which time I show him my ticket and passport, "you are correct, I put them there as you instructed me too". I usually defend the TSA, it is a thankless job. But what an idiot. My wife who was waiting right outside the gate said he patted doen each and every perso going through the total body scan machine.

 

[sambolino44]

...I try to get direct flights where ever I go and avoid the USofA when traveling

Me, too!

I think some of the drama could be avoided if more people had the attitude of, "we're all doing our part to help solve this problem" rather than, "why are they picking on me?" While some of the rules make sense from a security standpoint, many don't, and a lot of the hassle comes from the fact that, instead of educating and informing people (that's too hard) they just come down with hard rules.

I think that this whole issue has more to do with xenophobia and fear-mongering than it does with security.

 

[dannobee]

To show the stupidity of TSA agents, my dad's wife was a flight attendant who was standing in the flight crew security line (different from the cattle class security line). In front of her was a Federal Air Marshal. When the TSA agent found a pair of nail clippers in his carry on stuff, she confiscated them. After a long winded conversation, he said, "you mean you're taking my nail clippers but my loaded pistol is OK?" He promptly grabbed his clippers from her and stormed through the line.

 

[joolz]

Everybody has a TSA story or two, but bringing this back to the original topic, why would you even attempt to bring the whole rebreather on a plane as carry-on? If you know that cylinders are potentially controversial depending on the agent and how they're packed, why not just take them apart and check them (with HowardE's note displayed prominently). Or better yet, ship the cylinders and/or rebreather separately? Yes, it's an additional cost, but so was missing this entire trip.

Hate TSA all you want -- everybody does -- but these are the times we live in. The less stuff you have in your carry-on, the faster you'll get through.