The elderly woman I watched being separated from her husband was in tears. She clearly didn't understand what was going on and was in a state of anxiety. The agents were rude, condescending and definitely had the Barney mentality. They had any number of other passengers to pat down.

Any TSA agent who would do something like that is a complete asshole.

Former employee. Just trying to clear up they're not out to get you or hassle you. Everyone is treated the same. If he was literally trying to get someone to strip naked that should be his job because that is no where near close to protocol. You may have misinterpreted what was going on but the old man wasn't being checked for no reason.

I agree that type of attitude is unacceptable. She wasn't being patted down for no reason though and they should have made that known and let the couple know everything was alright.

Bullshit. He was being checked because the agent could not comprehend that he had metal in his body and was convinced he was lying about not having something on him. I was watching and heard the entire encounter.

A supervisor was finally summoned and ask the man if he had an artificial hip. The man said yes, the supervisor simply said, than you sir, you can go.

They are not all bad, but, there are a lot of bad ones that want to flaunt their authority.

You keep saying it was for not for no reason. Tell us what the reason could be.

1. No reason? Unless they had a quota to make, that's completely unacceptable on so many levels. This woman could barely talk, much less comprehend what was happening. She clearly had some kind of age-related issue. Must have been those terroristic thoughts weighing her down.

2. I've flown a good bit, domestic and international, since 9/11. I've rarely heard an agent fully describe the reason, why, or anything other than "we just need to check."

Coming back from Indy two weeks ago the agent stopped me and patted my ankle. Said the scanner indicated "metal in the area." Complete and total BS. There was absolutely nothing there and no reason whatsoever for him to do that, at all. The only thing on my body was ankle-high socks, pants, undies, a t-shirt and my boarding pass. Agents "should" do more to help make the system smoother but they damn sure don't.

I don't mind the system. I don't think they do as much as they can to make it better for the passengers, though.

3. As far as letting the couple know things were allright, they just said "OK" and went back to business. Several passengers told the agents they were out of bounds, obviously to no avail. Shrug, ignore and move on. Must be a policy.


Coming back from Vegas last Friday, a guy behind me in line said he's in the military and he was told at the Jacksonville airport -- in a military town -- that he had to remove all his medals, ribbons, stars, etc., from his dress uniform. The agent wouldn't relent. Guy told him he'd just take off his dress uniform and collar ... and then asked for a supervisor, who said "No, you're good" and reamed out the agent in front of everyone.

The guy wasn't wearing a turban with his dress uni, so apparently there was something else that made the agent believe him to be a suspect. Must have been the ribbons on his chest.

Been a couple years since I worked there. But if you have an artificial hip it sets off the walk through metal detector and you have to be patted down.
Simple process that takes a few mins ask frequent flyers.

It was embarrassing how our WWII Veterans were treated for our early Honor Flights. That these Greatest Generation men and women were made to remove their shoes & belts and many were subject to a pat down/frisking was rediculous. How many 90 year old Iwo Jima, Normandy, Battle of the Bulge, Air War over Germany shoe bombers have blown up chartered airplanes?

In Baltimore, these Heroes were declared Active Duty for the day & were allowed to bypass this process. For later flights, the silliness was relaxed appropriately.

Truth of the matter is that Homeland Security employes folks to try to smuggle bombs and guns on airplanes, they are succesful most of the time. That's because you have these schmucks hasslin' little old lady's. Most of these TSA agents couldn't get a job without the EOE law and minority hiring requirements.

Unless you're the 80 YO grandma.

They could have more compassion that is for sure. But...those pat downs are completely random. If you go through the machine and it randomly picks that number then you are getting a pat down regardless of how you look. They would lose their jobs if the skipped that check.

No.1
No there was a reason why. I can't answer because I wasn't there.
No.2
Some stuff you cant explain because it's not public info. And that's for your benefit.

They're constantly working on improving the flight experience. Tsa has only been here since 9/11 give it time it can do nothing but improve just as any company. As far as your ankle Idk can only speculate since I wasn't there.
As far as the guy in the military if he was asked to remove the metals it was not to set off the metal detector resulting in automatic pat down.

Flying is a privilege not a right. Don't want security don't fly. Easy as that.

Mattice, we all respect your authoritah . . . . . . did you retire from TSA and take over at your local mall?

TSA hired untrained idiots and then didn't train em, what do you expect???

I think we found one here on aldeer.

Not to derail the thread, but this story adds to the ineptitude of TSA.

I work in the firearms industry and we had a big show last year where a lot of outdoor product manufacturers came in to show product. We do this twice a year so it is not out of the ordinary.

Well one of our firearm reps naturally carries a pistol most everywhere she goes. Well, she went to the airport that morning with her normal travel bag but she totally forgot that she had left her concealed carry pistol in there. She checked in and took her carry on travel bag with the pistol straight through TSA. No questions asked, no bag search, nothing. Well, she makes it to Montgomery and checks into her hotel to unpack, and there is her pistol.

She obviously freaked out that she hadn't been caught and shipped the gun back, but still, it just shows that the TSA is a joke

It's funny that TSA folks think they make a difference and keep folks safe by checking old ladies and letting the obvious risks pass by because they can't be accused of profiling. Even funnier that they don't get the real reason behind it, to get millions of Americans used to having to go through checkpoints and deal with more governmental control................all the while whoever the heck wants to enter the country can leisurely walk across the southern border singing skip to the loo my darling.

I fly a number of times every year domestic and international. I know the routine.

[quote=MattIce

. Tsa has only been here since 9/11 give it time it can do nothing but improve just as any company. [/quote]

Damn, that was 14 1/2 years ago. How long do they need.