Nigerian Man attempts to blow up Plane

[AOII Angel]

Oh, the pat down. I wonder which one people with argue more about? Seeing them naked or feeling them? Thank you, Mr. Terrorist. You have just made international travel that much more difficult. Oh well, I'm still going to Paris in April!

I remember that I was in Sweden when the whole liquid explosive thing happened...we freaked out that we wouldn't be able to get back to the US. It wasn't that big of a deal; we just threw out all of our liquid toiletries that we didn't feel comfortable packing in our checked luggage. After 9/11, I had to travel to San Fran for the American College of Surgeons Convention with two colleagues, one from Bahrain and one from Afghanistan. We told them to stay with us (white americans) at all times. We didn't want them to look suspicious! Who ended up getting flagged at security...both ways? Me, the giggly blonde. I thought it was hilarious.

[charlie2010]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

After 9/11, I had to travel to San Fran for the American College of Surgeons Convention with two colleagues, one from Bahrain and one from Afghanistan. We told them to stay with us (white americans) at all times. We didn't want them to look suspicious! Who ended up getting flagged at security...both ways? Me, the giggly blonde. I thought it was hilarious.

Last summer, on a flight from NY to Amsterdam, we were the lucky ones selected for additional screening, including our two-year old son. I wasn't even allowed to stay with him while they "searched" him (had to stay 15 feet away from him or so). I was a bit annoyed until my husband, rightfully, pointed out that if they don't do that it's just a matter of time before a crazy fundamentalist idiot uses a child (his own or someone else's) to carry explosives onto a plane. Sad but probably true!

The security guy who checked my son managed to turn it into a big adventure for him anyway. He told him to pretend he was an airplane (one of his favorite words he had picked up in America that summer) and gave him a high five (which he had just learned to do) so I don't think he's scarred for life or anything like that.

Also, I fly from Amsterdam to the US regularly and I am glad they have finally "upped" security measures there... I have heard too many stories of people who - unintentionally - ended up on planes with things like bottles of water and pocket knifes that officially should have been taken from them. Not saying that Amsterdam is the only airport where that happens, it's just that it's the airport I am most familiar with. This event (and the fact that the guy who managed to wrestle the Nigerian guy down was Dutch) made for most of the headlines over the past week here so let's hope it was a wake up call. A lot of people think that "stuff like that doesn't happen here," which is slightly naive, I suppose.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by charlie2010

Last summer, on a flight from NY to Amsterdam, we were the lucky ones selected for additional screening, including our two-year old son. I wasn't even allowed to stay with him while they "searched" him (had to stay 15 feet away from him or so). I was a bit annoyed until my husband, rightfully, pointed out that if they don't do that it's just a matter of time before a crazy fundamentalist idiot uses a child (his own or someone else's) to carry explosives onto a plane. Sad but probably true!

The security guy who checked my son managed to turn it into a big adventure for him anyway. He told him to pretend he was an airplane (one of his favorite words he had picked up in America that summer) and gave him a high five (which he had just learned to do) so I don't think he's scarred for life or anything like that.

Also, I fly from Amsterdam to the US regularly and I am glad they have finally "upped" security measures there... I have heard too many stories of people who - unintentionally - ended up on planes with things like bottles of water and pocket knifes that officially should have been taken from them. Not saying that Amsterdam is the only airport where that happens, it's just that it's the airport I am most familiar with. This event (and the fact that the guy who managed to wrestle the Nigerian guy down was Dutch) made for most of the headlines over the past week here so let's hope it was a wake up call. A lot of people think that "stuff like that doesn't happen here," which is slightly naive, I suppose.

Nothing irritates me more than when people get irrational about being screened. Some people start yelling that they are being profiled. I've been screened so many times, and unless they've added tall blondes to the list of terror suspects, they aren't profiling. It's part of the process and doesn't really take that long. I chat with the TSA people while they do it. It's kind of neat. I like it better than the air machine KSig RC was talking about...if you aren't a shirt tucker, you gotta watch out. That thing can blow your shirt over your head! What has irritated me, though, was getting screened in Louisville after my Radiology boards. The TSA guy forgot to mark my ticket that I'd been screened and my ticket was marked for mandatory screening since it was a last minute ticket. When I got to boarding, I couldn't board until another TSA guy came to re-screen me. This was after they'd canceled my flight the night before, told me that I could fly out the next morning at 6 am, told me the next morning that I actually had not been booked on that full flight and instead would have to sit all day in the airport to fly out on the 6pm flight! Yay me!

[charlie2010]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Nothing irritates me more than when people get irrational about being screened. Some people start yelling that they are being profiled. I've been screened so many times, and unless they've added tall blondes to the list of terror suspects, they aren't profiling!

Mmmm... I guess that would explain why we were picked out.... We're all tall and blond.... (runs in the family...)

Those people are just doing their jobs, and if they do it well, we'll all be that much safer.