Is this typical airport security?

[CoffeeCat]

I'm wondering...

I'm a 30-something mom with two young kids. I live in a small town in the midwest. Pretty non-threatening.

I flew recently. I hadn't flown since 9/11, so the difference in security was obvious.

However, I'm curious about the security I endured. I'm wondering if this is normal?

As I handed the security personnel my bags, I was told to "step aside." I had been randomly selected to be searched. I had to sit in a chair, in full view of all passengers who were going through security. I was "frisked" by a female security officer. She asked me to remove my shoes, then patted me down. Part of the pat down included a great deal of attention paid to my bra. Yes. My bra. She felt around my bra and pulled it away from by body. She explained that I could be hiding something in my bra and she had to feel around the metal under wire to make sure that I wasn't hiding anything around the wire.

After the rigorous feeling-up session, I was asked to open my carry on bag. I did. She pulled out my underwear and one of my tennis shoes. She placed strips on them, pulled them off and then carried the strips to a machine. I asked what she was doing and she replied, "Testing for explosives." Hello? On my underwear?

After testing my undies and shoe, she then proceeded to rifle through my carry on bag. When she didn't find anything, she zipped it up. I was then told to put on my shoes and that I could proceed through security.

Ok. Is this typical? Was this just a random thing, and I was the unfortunate random person who had to go through these procedures? Is this just post 9/11 nonsense that everyone must endure?

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Thanks for any feedback or conversation. This happened a while ago, but I feel that this was really odd.

[PWRinNY]

1. Exact same thing happened to me

Twice. Both times in red states. No problems flying in and out of NY. Both times it was on my way back home to NY, coming from a red state. And these were the only times I've flown since 01/00.

[FreedomAngel82]

36. Oh and check out

at sfgate.com there is a picture of a woman who ordered a push up bra from Britian and homeland security opened it up! What is up with this?

[AlCzervik]

2. yes and no, my husband flies for business all the time and he's been

"randomly selected" twice now for the big in public frisking. Last time it was him and an elderly woman, he was pissed at how they treated her and said so, they told him to mind his own business. He contaced his employer, they have a major contract with them and explained what happened, there is supposed to be some follow up.

[AX10]

3. sounds unusual.

could be petty bureaucrats.

[LisaL]

7. You haven't flown much lately, have you?

It's normal procedure. I get my bag searched, everybody is made to remove shoes, and people are selected for extra searching all the time.

[CoffeeCat]

10. No, I don't fly often...

Since I've had my 2 kids, I rarely fly at all.

I knew security was tighter, but some of the procedures seemed a bit ridiculous to me.

[LisaL]

20. Yea, a whole bunch of shoeless people,

standing in line, with their shoes in boxes. Pretty funny.
At least they don't make us to remove the rest of the clothes.

[AX10]

23. Out of JFK.

I have had to remove my shoes quite often because of the metal in them. Otherwise, I have not seen nor experienced such invasive procedures as the poster has.

[MADem]

4. I get something along those lines EVERY time I fly

But I believe I have been designated an enemy of the state! Normally, "they" say they only pick a small percentage to "randomly" search, but if that were the case, I wish I could get that "lucky" playing the lottery!

[LisaL]

5. It's done all the time nowdays.

It does not sound like anything out of the ordinary, unfortunately.
In fact, here they make everyone to remove shoes.

[babylonsister]

11. Shoes, yes. Boobs, definitely, NO! nt

[RC]

12. I thought they stopped the shoe removal crap?

[LisaL]

16. Last time I flew, everybody in line was made to remove shoes,

put them in a little box, and I think all shoes went through the scanning machine. They do it in some airports, but not the others.

[donco6]

26. They do that almost everywhere I go.

Denver, certainly. Houston. Had to do it in Chicago. Boston. Seattle. Mexico. Miami.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. You were likely one of the random selectees whose person and luggage

gets inspected. Not everybody has to go through this (unless you are on some sort of watch list, then you get it all the time), but you might get it randomly, or not at all. I fly all the time and have never been frisked like that, just got wanded once. It's annoying, but that's what the TSA is doing these days. It also depends to some extent on the particular airport.

[woodsprite]

8. Close to that, but no strips on my shoes/clothes.

After the 2nd time on the same trip, I suspect it's not so "random". I figured it was because I'm a plus size person and they weren't sure it was all me. That I could be hiding something. It was enough to make me not want to travel by air again unless I positively have to. It was at Chicago and Philly Int'l. It was at least 2yrs before I joined DU, so that didn't have anything to do with it. ;) I have a friend who, because of a family medical emergency, had to change her flight at the last minute. She couldn't get roundtrip tickets, so she got 2 one-way tickets. They strip searched her and her husband before they'd let them on the plane.

[babylonsister]

9. I fly often, and, to me, this is not normal.

May I ask what city? Small town city or connecting flight?
I have been 'wanded' and 'felt up', i.e., they feel around your boob/bra area, but not recently. I always chalked that off to an underwire bra, and never felt threatened because I have nothing to hide.
But I have to ask why, after you went through a security check via machine, is this creep-ita going through your bag(s) again? Not kosher imo.

[LisaL]

13. They might see something suspicious in a machine, or whatever.

I had all the money taken out of my wallet. I guess the guy thought I am hiding something in there. I was more worried about him helping himself to some of that money. They tested my wallet for explosives. I had my bag manually searched after it went through the machine. WTF knows why they do it.

[CoffeeCat]

14. I flew out of Des Moines, Iowa....to DC...

I wondered if people flying to DC were searched more, or more thoroughly. However, many on this thread are saying that what I experienced was normal.

[babylonsister]

28. It's NOT normal. However, who's going to fight it?

I can't, but this behavior hasn't happened to me in a long time.
Yes, shoes are an issue, jewelry is an issue, whatever might set
something off. And yes, they have their quotas where people are
stopped every howevermany they choose, and are unlucky enough to
be 'the one' that we all hope we are not, but it doesn't take long.

[anitar1]

31. Another thing I have wondered about. It seems they are

preoccupied with boobs. Are they also feeling around men's private parts. No telling what they could be carrying. A bit of sarcasm here, but why the breast fetish? It seems very demeaning to women, who have to be subjected to this, in full view of all other passengers.But we all know that women flew the planes--right?

[Agnomen]

15. I had to go through "random" searches several times

but only had a metal detector passed over my body, and of course my hand luggage was dusted w. some sort of powder and hand-searched. Never been manually patted down. I take off my shoes without being asked when I go through the detector gate.

[SPKrazy]

17. They frisked my 2 year old son!

pissed me off no end.

he was wearing shoes that lit up and it set off the metal detectors, they tried to separate him from me, but I wouldn't let them so they ended up frisking us both.

Not as physical as the original poster.

I watched as young males with dark hair and olive skin passed easily through while my curly auburn hair boy was frisked, frightened, and I was livid!

[LisaL]

18. They just love women with children. Go figure.

But they zero in on them and WTF knows why.

[SPKrazy]

19. Except I'm a man!

my wife had the car seat and I took our son through security.

[LisaL]

21. As long as the child is present, it does not matter.

[CoffeeCat]

22. Ohmy!

I can't believe they would frisk a 2 year old. What were they looking for...Care Bear toys?

I'm also more livid that they would attempt to separate a mom (or a dad) from her (or his) child, especially when the child is being frisked.

That would have made me really angry. How insensitive of them.

Edited--I saw in one of your posts that you are a male! :)

[AX10]

27. lowly bureaucrats that have no use, that's what they are.

[donco6]

24. Yes, pretty typical.

I just recently had to be wanded and all I was wearing was shorts and a T-shirt and flip flops! I don't know WHERE they thought I'd be hiding anything!

[Richard D]

25. My computer tested positive for . . .

. . . nitro on one flight. Couldn't figure out what happened until they asked if anyone I knew used nitro-glycerine for their heart. It rang a bell. the husband of a friend uses it, and I let her use my computer for a couple minutes a few days before my flight. Sensitive stuff those test swabs.

[Ian David]

44. Imagine someone dusted the sidewalk outside the airport with black powder

Everyone's shoes would set-off the detector.

[sakabatou]

29. Yeah

It's typical

[high density]

30. It's f'ing crazy

I've only flown twice since 9/11, but I've dropped family members off at the airport numerous times and witnessed the security line. I think it's a fairly dumb process. First off it's engineered to be awkward with the half dozen ID and boarding pass checks and the x-raying of shoes. (I think the x-raying of shoes may just be at certain airports.) I know the last time I went though security I nearly lost my boarding pass because I found out that you need about four hands to take off your shoes while keeping your "papers" handy for multiple showings to the flunkies running the show. My grandmother, 79, was almost denied passage through security because she accidentally presented an expired drivers license. I know the rules say no expired IDs, but that's a dumb rule. How about allowing IDs that have expired within the last five years. As long as you can positively ID the person and have decent confidence that the ID isn't fraudulent, who cares if it's expired or not?

And not everybody goes through what you went through. I think you might be "randomly" selected at check-in (it prints SSSS on your boarding pass or something like that.) I've read horror stories about bras before. If my grandmother didn't have a current photo ID, though, she would have been put through that.

I just hate what this nation is coming to and the millions of idiots who keep voting for the fascism.

[LibDemAlways]

35. I saw someone's grandmother being abused

by TSA screeners in Seattle. She had to be 90, frail and hunched over in a wheelchair. They pulled her out of line, yanked her shoes off, and then hoisted her out of the chair so they could wand her and the chair. She was absolutely terrified. I don't think she had any idea what was happening.

What the hell has it come to when the government can terrorize an elderly woman and it's considered routine?

This happened while I was undergoing the feel-up treatment because the metal detector was triggered by pins in my ankle from an old surgery. I pointed to the scar on my lower leg and suggested they wand it. Instead they launched the feel up routine. My impression was that they were a bunch of sadistic perverts who enjoyed humiliating people.

[awoke_in_2003]

37. Well, sadism and law enforcement

seem to go hand-in-hand (DU cops excluded, of course :) )

[DELUSIONAL]

32. and yet the cargo isn't subjected to the same sort of searches

No this is usual.

I had one dim witted bitch beat my carry on bag -- because she couldn't open it. Inside the bag was my very terrified Chihuahua -- I pulled my carry on bag away from the bitch took out my now shaking Chihuahua (she is not a shaking type Chihuahua) and told her that I'd have her arrested for animal abuse if she touched my baby. Yes -- my dog was traumatized and ill for several days.

Meanwhile she mashed our sandwiches etc.

This was just after 9-11 -- and the people hired were the absolute worst, unprofessional idiots that the government could find. Shades of class warfare.

I don't fly cross county any more -- I drive.

If you fly out of tourist airports -- in warm/hot climates where people are mostly in shorts, t-shirts and flip flops -- I haven't seen anyone pulled out of line in the last three years.

It really depends on the airport and the training of the "security".

The security is mostly show -- it makes "some" people feel safer to see an old lady forced to remove her shoes and her thin jacket.

I grew up on super secure military bases -- so I am not impressed with the "security".

Apparently the Airline Corporations don't want business.

[babylonsister]

34. I am passive/optimistic, love passion flowers, so this will be

fun, interesting, or down right dumb.

[NJCher]

33. I've cut flying to the absolute minimum because of this

I, too, have been chosen to be "random searched." I was lucky I anticipated it and took an Ambien because that kept my temper at bay. I really have no patience whatsoever for this type of thing and that's why I've pretty much quit flying. The only time I fly anymore is to see my parents once a year.

I used to go on two or three vacations a year but no more. There are plenty of other places for money to go in "bush's America." Like pay my heating bill, which was nearly $500 last month.

Couldn't agree more about the fascists and the idiots who keep voting for them.




Cher

[PDJane]

38. The last time I flew

Was last year, out of Toronto to Texas and back, and I was treated as though I were in training for an illegal immigrant by the US customs.

I have "mobility issues" (I walk with a cane), and I had to have a doctor's permission to keep the bloody thing. My clothes were rumbled through several times, and I was warned about the underwire bra thing, so wore an athletic job. My needlework frame caused all kinds of consternation, and my jewellry kept setting off the damn metal alarms.

My son is a 6'4" bruiser with a goatee and short-cropped brown hair, dark blue eyes and VERY fair skin. He HATES to go to the states these days. He used to work in New York, barely missed being blown up twice, once in the wall street bombing and once in the towers. He is still working for an American company, but telecomutes.......and despises the thought of travelling there. Apparently, he looks like a terrorist.......because he gets pulled out of line EVERY time he goes there at EVERY airport along the way.

I have horror stories galore from Canadians...about passports being held by the bursar on a cruise ship, about children being frisked, about things being stolen from luggage and insurance refusing to pay for those things because the suitcase wasn't locked, about being questioned for hours over the smallest infraction, about being turned back from the border because of a toolbox (can't have them illegal seniors working in Florida, eh?), about the kind of suspicion a name of middle east or Indian antecedents garners.....and since your president has restated the right of the US to lock up anyone for anything as long as they are not a citizen, I can understand it. The treatment Maher Arar received is not something I'd want to endure.

It is odd.......and it's a problem with the system and the people that are hired and the training they receive.

[malaise]

39. Do not wear wirecup bras

when you travel. I know it's hard to remember but it spares that horrible public feel-up. I hate it.

[shance]

40. No Two Sparkles. What you experienced was harassment.

Whatever was requested from what you mentioned, was inappropriate and frankly, illegal. Of course now, with this Administration, it seems, as Ethel Merman sang, "Anything Goes". And, it should not.

I look back at the days when we had a government and a president who would never engage in such perverse, fear driven tactics. Then, such an Administration operated from a whole different, ethical set of principles that we call the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, which apparently this Administration now calls a "god damned sheet of paper". This Administration tries to use and exploit the event of September 11th. How dare them attempt to use an event that they were now knowingly negligent at the least, in allowing to occur.

You were harassed in my opinion, and certainly those as well, who remember the days of legitimate, logical, and standard security measures. However, today's security measures are meant to intimidate, isolate, and punish those who oppose the policies of this Administration.

Im sorry you had to endure such inappropriate measures. It was unecessary and invasive. I do hope that never happens to you again.

[NMMNG]

41. I have flown to and from Boston several times and had no problem

I have to do the typical shoes off through the metal detector and carry-on through the x-ray, but I've not been "randomly selected" for anything more. However my sister and her daughter (age 1) were last year. Frisking, bag check, the whole 9 yards. They were in Indiana at the time. (You never know how much C4 those babies might have packed in their diapers :sarcasm:)

[BooScout]

42. Yes it's normal....

I have been searched routinely since 9/11 as has my husband. Up until recently I never had to remove my shoes though since the ones I wear when I fly are rubber-soled....however on my last trip out of Atlanta, everyone, including me had to remove them.

My 75 year old mother sets off the alarms because of her artifical hip so she gets pulled aside everytime and makes jokes about it.

I have been pulled aside in London's Gatwick and searched just like in the US. It's not specific to any one country as far as I can tell....once while fling out of Gatwick I watched as they searched a woman in a wheel chair. If you fly often enough you are going to get searched. I don't take it personally. It's just a fact of life these days.....I do object to not being able to fly with my lighter now.......that's just stupid.

[Ian David]

43. Sometimes they require me to felate the screener. No idea why. n/t

[shance]

46. LOL***

who says the airport screeners don't get good benefits?

[sproutster]

45. I haven't flown a ton, but I have flown post 911

One time was a witch from my old hometown - we'd grown up together, so she was just trying to piss me off. No Boobs - Yes shoes, or boots in that particular senario.

Got tagged once in a round trip from AK to ID - Just shoes.

Got tagged once on a one way from AK to ID - Just shoes & wand.

Never once did they touch me.

(not a member of any political group during travelling btw - not outspoken and barely conscious of politics)