My insight about TSA since I'm a pilot.

I've been a pilot for years, I fly for delta and flown for many other airlines. I'd like to say there are two sides to this story.

Side One: Safety in the Airlines:
The number one thing is the airlines are very insecure. There will always be a way around security. I was standing in line one day and a women said she didn't want her kid pat down. And I struck up a conversation with her and asked "why shouldn't your kid be searched" she's like come on does he look like a terrorist. I replied to "terrorists would use kids to get there plan accomplished" she replied. I didn't know what I was talking about. Yet I've worked in the airlines and I know there are many security holes. I believe the TSA is doing the right job but they are doing it in the WRONG way. No one needs to be profiled there needs to be a way for the TSA to search each person no exceptions.

Now I've talked to many pilots who think the FULL body scanners produce more radiation then that the "TSA" is claiming. I believe and truly truly believe the cancer rates are going to be going up since. When you go in for an x-ray they have to put lead on your body parts that aren't needing the x-ray to prevent from exposed radiation. I do believe people will be developing cancer more since if you fly a lot. More then say 20 times a year each time you are getting exposed to more and more radiation. When someone is exposed to radiation more then 5 times there life they usual develop a cancer. It's almost the equivalent of sitting next to a barrel of radiation.

Side Two: Your Freedom.
I don't think telling a women who had her breasts removed and fake ones she wears. The TSA told her to remove them. That is a bit embarrassing don't you think? I don't think the TSA should have to right to take away your rights because you might be a terrorist. From all the years of being a pilot most terrorists have been not wanting this to sound racist but most terrorist are from foreign countries. We used to carry guns to protect the cabin of the airplane. Now Obama has taken away our right as pilots who fly these planes that we aren't allowed to have guns. It's hard to fight someone with a box cutter or a bomb with your bare hands....

What are your thoughts on the TSA? You like what they are doing or hate? How would you if you could build a security system for the airlines what would you have in place vs the current TSA procedure?

The entire method and thinking of the TSA screening process is BS.

I am a US citizen and I don't need to be treated like a criminal just because I want to take a flight. The TSA rules are assuming that I am a terrorist so I must be scanned, searched and groped. Why is the Federal Government involved to begin with? Airlines are private businesses and should be able to provide their own security.

If the TSA wants to search me and my belongings then they must have probable cause and a warrant. We don't give up our rights just because we would like to take a plane ride.

We should conduct ourselves more like Israel regarding the airports. There is no bigger target than Israel and even they don't have these retarded TSA rules. Profiling is the answer. Not racial profiling but criminal profiling. That makes the most sense.

Pilots should not be exempt either. If the TSA is going to continue these insane rules then everyone must be subject to them including pilots and congressmen.

If the TSA is going to assume I am a terrorist then the TSA should assume a pilot is a drug smuggler and should go through the same procedures.

As you are a pilot then answer me this. Do you see any pilots that are saying they have had it and are quitting or retiring early because of the TSA mess and other problems the airlines is having now days. Is there a day coming when there are planes but no pilots to fly them? Tell us how your pilot friends feel about this. Tell us how other flight crew members feel about what is going on.

The "terrorists" have won, freedom has lost. Might as well just bend over and give up. OR we could just do things conventionally, instead of like a bunch of scared farm animals.

reply to post by xweaponx

Now I've talked to many pilots who think the FULL body scanners produce more radiation

Do they also know you receive incredibly higher amounts of radiation from a plane ride than the body scanner?

I have stayed out of the TSA threads but I will put my little two cents in this one.


I don't agree with the scanners at all and I will gladly take a pat down. It's for safety and well with flying being the most terrifying thing for me I want to make sure I feel safe. People imo are overreacting to the pat downs. I don't see people complaining when you have to be patted down at a court house, which I have and it was NO big deal. Everyone makes it out like all the agents are creeps and well that isn't the case. That "don't touch my junk" guy only did that to get his own 15mins of fame and well he did. They are doing the job they are told. They have families to support to so they do their job and people freaking out on them isn't making it easier. I have to fly next month to Italy and I will take the pat down over the scanner. I just hope they don't mind my giggling since I am highly ticklish

I don't see the pat downs as intrusive or dirty like most and I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would find it dirty when they are just patting you down just like a cop would...so are cops "molesting" people too?

If you don't like the rules when flying, then don't fly that is my opinion. If I can film my pat down I will just to show it's not what they make it out to be and I won't be a smart ass to the agent either. I will just joke with them and try and make them smile because I am sure they are getting attacked like crazy verbally by people right now.

The one thing I don't like about the TSA is what I was told by a British Airways agent...she told me not to check my valuables because they will go through and take the valuables esp laptops....now that is what bothers me about the TSA agents dealing with the luggage. I found it odd that an agent told me NOT to check my laptop or valuables so I will put them in my carry on instead. That worries me more with the TSA than a silly little pat down.

S&F for you...

More people are killed on the roads in a month than there are victims of terrorism in US in one year. One has to keep perspective.

TPTB are not doing this for safety. They're doing this as part of a psychological war on the people - those same US citizens they have already officially declared to be their 'enemy'.

Terrorism is created by the US/Israel/UK. The single biggest threat to all decent people worldwide is Israel's persecution of Palestinians.

If US stopped giving Israel $3billion dollars worth of military aid each year, that would be a start. It would show that they really want to do something to stop the insanity.

However, US won't do so - because it is controlled by Zionist greedy psychopathic corporations - including the banks.

People have to start to join up the dots. This is not a security issue, it's a terrorist issue - government terrorism against US citizens. It is not apolitical, it is a very political move, in the war against US citizens.

Have you ever asked yourself why these so-called terrorists are always allegedly attacking US/UK airplanes and NOT Israel's? After all, Israel is the biggest hater of Islam in the world.

Have a look at the Protocols of Zion and you will see what the agenda is. It has been 'debunked' as fiction and anti-semitic, but have a read and you will see it is not fiction, it's a road map of what has happened, what is happening and what is intended to happen.

And do you honestly think Mrs. Obama will allow herself to be groped???

reply to post by xweaponx


Wouldn't a more practical measure be to allow the pilots to carry a gun again? Why was that stopped?

second

reply to post by WhatTheory


NO, your "logic" is askew.....

TSA isn't in the illicit drug intercession business at all. Your comparison is inapt.

AND....to infer and (for some un-gawdly reason, single out pilots???) as "drug smugglers"??? Just flat-out insane.

The illegal trafficking of drugs occurs in many ways, but it certainly isn't via flight crew members. Take a closer look at the recent baggage handlers scandals that made it into the news (and then imagine the stories that didn't)....

Oh, and OP has many valid points, if I interpret it correctly...about holes in the "security". I've said this since they first started making us go through the metal detectors since 1987 (after the PSA 1771 incident).

The very "public" exhibition, of making pilots and Flight Attendants submit to the "same" security as passengers? Pure public spectacle, and infuriating and inconvenient and totally unnecessary for crew...but it was a way to make it appear as if they were doing "something". Even to this day, it is nonsense to make crews subjected to this...because not ALL airline (nor airport) employees have to go through it....there are non-visible-to-the-public access points, everywhere.

EVERY (in USA) flight crewmember has undergone background checks, to include FINGERPRINTING on file. They are known by management who oversee them, and by colleagues they work with. THAT is one of the ways (unseen, unnoticed) that airline and airport security REALLY works.

It is the SLF ("self-loading freight"....AKA, the passengers) who are the strangers, and are being accommodated at the RISK (and barely a profit, occasionally) of the airlines.

BTW....the recurrence of another "9/11-style" event has a ZERO% chance of happening. I won't go into details.

SO, the latest "efforts" by those extremists intent on terror will be in the form of explosives, as the next-most effective tactic. AND, it is actually much harder to accomplish (devastating explosions) than is usually portrayed in entertainment and fiction. Depends a GREAT deal on location. (Another thing I won't go into detail about....except to say, we ARE trained on "least risk" bomb locations, as part of security training. Varies by airplane model.....)

Even with PanAm 103? ONE instance, and passenger's luggage is checked more thoroughly now....but IF that same suitcase bomb had, say, been placed differently? Deeply buried within a pile of other bags? Might not have been so fatal. Depends on many factors. Chance plays a role, sometimes, in the terrorists' "luck".....

More people are killed every year by falling coconuts than 'terrorism'.

My rights are not subject to a debate.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

An airline ticket is not a warrant. I refuse this indignity.

I do not live in fear, I live in America!

Originally posted by weedwhacker
NO, your "logic" is askew.....

Can I play also.....NO, your logic is faulty.

TSA isn't in the illicit drug intercession business at all. Your comparison is inapt.

Really? Then they would not mind if they found a joint on me right?
See the fault in your logic?

AND....to infer and (for some un-gawdly reason, single out pilots???) as "drug smugglers"??? Just flat-out insane.

It's called making a point because it's just as insane as the TSA trying to infer that ordinary passengers are terrorists.

reply to post by wcitizen

....to carry a gun again? Why was that stopped?

It hasn't.

But, IMO, it's worthless anyway. Especially now. Perhaps when it was first instituted (around 2002-2003), before certain changes were implemented.... it had some possible merit.

Now, it's an ego thing, to me. (The ones that go for the program). Looks to be a LOT more trouble than it's worth, as well, for those involved.

reply to post by xweaponx



Here's an interesting copy of a letter from the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association. It's actually a letter which makes charges against government bodies for IGNORING security concerns raised by airline staff.

www.abeldanger.net...

Originally posted by weedwhacker
reply to post by wcitizen

 

....to carry a gun again? Why was that stopped?

It hasn't.

Well, that's not what the pilot said in his OP:

We used to carry guns to protect the cabin of the airplane. Now Obama has taken away our right as pilots who fly these planes that we aren't allowed to have guns. It's hard to fight someone with a box cutter or a bomb with your bare hands....

So do you have some new information on this?

reply to post by WhatTheory


You seem to have exaggerated this "illegal drugs" aspect out of proportion. It is NOT within their jurisdiction (TSA) to make arrests because of illicit substances.

What has been seen is a bunch of stupid people carrying ON THEIR PERSON some personal-use (and illegal) stuff, and it being seen on the body scanners, (or found accidentally during hand searches of carry-ons) as part of the TSA's duties....to determine whether or not it's an explosive, or other listed prohibited item. BUT, having the occasional "cowboy" attitude, and maybe personal distaste/biases, if they discover such items, it is likely they will notifiy proper authorities (like Airport Police) who ARE authorized Peace Officers, with arrest authority.

Here's a full list (and NOT from a Government source, directly...from "Seat Guru"..Yes, it's a good site, for when I buy actual FULL PRICE airline tickets. Usually I do, it's easier than traveling using benefits):

www.seatguru.com...

Look, I don't "defend" the few TSA bad apples who behave like jerks, at best, and Nazi jack-booted thugs at worst...all because of their uniform, fake "badge", and false sense of 'authority' and 'entitlement'.....this mental attitude is instilled in them usually by their own management.

reply to post by wcitizen


I missed that comment in the OP.

Find it puzzling, since when I check I can see the program for pilots is still in effect. I have recently SEEN a pilot, at the airport as I was passing through, undergoing the procedure for entering the "secure area". You become very aware, from practice and experience, to these things. Second nature.

Let me check, before I write more, just to see what I can say about it.....

Here's some insight about Chetoff, which also very much needs to be taken into consideration in this situation.

www.brasschecktv.com:80...

"I was standing in line one day and a women said she didn't want her kid pat down."

You're a pilot and you have to stand in line with all of the other lowly passengers? What happened to industry perks?


"Now I've talked to many pilots who think the FULL body scanners produce more radiation then that the "TSA" is claiming."

Since when are pilots experts on radiation dosage?


"The one thing I don't like about the TSA is what I was told by a British Airways agent...she told me not to check my valuables because they will go through and take the valuables esp laptops..."

The story below is an example of what kind of thieving scum is hired by the TSA:

www.nj.com...


"TSA isn't in the illicit drug intercession business at all."

Correct, they're in the "fencing" business - see above TSA character for more info. And if you think he is the only crooked one, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. When foreign airline employees are warning you about these dirtbags, you know something is up.


"BTW....the recurrence of another "9/11-style" event has a ZERO% chance of happening. I won't go into details."

Agreed, since the chances of a 9/11-style event happening the way the OS explains it is ZERO% - even before 9/11.

I'm SO afraid that I can be misconstrued for what I'm going to say.. Yes, the terrorists are gleeful now.. Look at all the excitment they've created on their behalf. And Cost.. No cave dwellers here. Just Anti Westener sentiment.
Just to bust our chops? Why wouldn't a terrorist just drive up to the departure area? Or walk up to the checkpoint? Am I going to get in trouble for saying what others are thinking?
Where's it end? Or Start? Just asking..
Yeah, I heard that over the sky terrorism is more dramatic, but, hotel bombings terrified me just as much.

If I get a knock on my door... U know where it came from and I will report back.

The new equipment and frisking seems a little over the top considering all the other loop holes.

If we all wrote what concerns us and why in security? We'd all be arrested for aiding the enemy.

I'm not gonna go there. I'll play nice. Ain't no terrorist.. Go ahead Frisk me.

Am I on a list now?