As you wait in line at crowded US airports remember the reason you are getting screened by the TSA. Evil people try to hijack and blow up airliners, and the bad guys like to try their attempts around Christmas and New Year. Think of Pan Am Flight 103 and the notorious "Underwear Bomber." Those TSA screeners are working under great pressure as screening is no easy task.
You may wonder and be frustrated by how many children, grandmothers, invalids and holiday pies are subjected to pat-downs or frisking. "What jerks, Grandma can't be a terrorist!" Actually, Grandmas could be an unknowing dupe for a terrorist plot; and many terrorist groups gladly use children. There was one case in on April 17, 1986 when a Palestinian terrorist Nezar Hindawi packed a bomb into the carry-on bag of his pregnant Irish fiance, Anne Mary Murphy. The bomb was found by a very alert El Al security agent at London Heathrow.
Then again, even supposedly knowledgeable and skilled journalists will carry on and incite rants on travel blogs and the like about the TSA infringing on rights against unreasonable searches. Those types are being irresponsible. Whether they are searched by government personnel or by airline personnel a host of US laws, international conventions, ICAO standards and airline security management systems - not to mention common sense - require that reasonable measures be taken to keep weapons and explosives off of aircraft. That is why US courts have consistently upheld that such searches - applied to everybody - are "reasonable." Of course the current whine and nonsensical assertion that the TSA "has never stopped a terrorist" is ludicrous and maintained by those unschooled in aviation security and intelligence and law enforcement tradecraft. (Sort of like saying the NYPD has never stopped a burglary. Think about it.) Of course, you can't prove that the TSA never stopped an act that didn't happen...yet in a recent week TSA screeners discovered 32 loaded firearms that passengers "forgot" were in their hand luggage. (As a Canadian Customs Officer once remarked to me, only somebody from the US would "forget" they had a weapon in their baggage or trunk of their vehicle.)
These TSA screeners are doing their best to handle lots of people and make flight secure and safe. Speaking of safety, with the nasty weather we're experiencing over the Twelve Days of Christmas, don't get too upset at your airline for canceling your flight or flights. If you are traveling in the Northern USA in Winter you need to plan and be prepared for adverse weather....Fact of life: Prudent and competent pilots know the limitations of their aircraft and themselves and do not fly in severe weather. Of course, a big portion of this problem is the system of hubs and spokes resulting from airline deregulation and "consolidation" (mergers, less point to point flights and fewer choices --- and higher fares in many markets) that gets totally paralyzed by bad weather. Just as is the case with TSA screening, your airline is having you endure delays or cancellations for safety reasons.
Of course, if you'd like to travel without the screening hassle or the snow cancellations, I'd say take the train, like those of us in the Snow Belt used to do. Unfortunately, we Americans created Amtrak and then have lost the political and economic will to make it more than a Third World system - when we need a system of systems as Germany, Italy, Japan and China have. That is the subject of another blog entry. Stay tuned and Happy Yuletide and New Year.
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