TSA Requires a Separate Screening of Cameras in Airports Now

Since I can't afford my own jet yet and I fly every week. Guess I will be getting the TSA PreCheck asap. Getting dressed and putting the laptop away at the end of the conveyor belt is rushed enough, I don't want to deal with several thousand dollars in camera bodies and several lenses bouncing around in a tub.

 

LINK

Unfortunately getting TSA Pre-Check doesn't guarantee you won't get stopped and 'frisked'. I always go on a flight with the Pre-Check status -- they still often make me go through the 'stuff in your bucket' process -- just that they don't require 'shoes off'. However, the last time I flew (with TSA Pre-Check), they pulled me off the line and made me go through a full search -- when was the last time a 60-something Caucasian woman tried to take down a plane; they say random searches are done so they are not accused of profiling -- geez! And worse -- while this is being done, your bag may be 'unattended' on the belt -- that happened once and I asked them please to keep an eye on it for me (since that had my camera gear), they refused.

The 60 something women are a very risky bunch. I remember this Monty Python skit

second half of clip)

 

I occasionally get a PreCheck on my ticket. I had gone through JFK with a PreCheck ticket and they pulled my bag and carefully inspected the two laptops and all my lenses including a 150-600mm, 75-200mm and an assortment of smaller lenses. The TSA agent was very nice, just doing his job. I think some airports like JFK check everything.

 

Still, I think the TSA PreCheck may help have this happen less often.

 

I have even seen TSA do a second check of all passengers right at the gate. You never know. I just want to lessen the risk of my lenses and gear getting scuffed up in all the handling.

Pre check and all, last three trips, full checks on four of six flights. Frisk each time and complete unpack of full camera bag twice. Don't fly unless I must.

when was the last time a 60-something Caucasian woman tried to take down a plane

Just a guss here. I don't think they're worried about the last time a 60-something Caucasian woman tried to take a down a plane as much as they are worried about the next time a 60-something Caucasian woman might take down a plane.

 

Oh, and, meet LINK-COLLEEN LAROSE, born in Michigan, raised in Detroit, and convicted of terrorism-related crimes, currently serving time in federal prison. She's only 54 but, by your standards, she would have come really close to receiving the white woman pass.

Just a guss here. I don't think they're worried about the last time a 60-something Caucasian woman tried to take a down a plane as much as they are worried about the next time a 60-something Caucasian woman might take down a plane.

 

Oh, and, meet LINK-COLLEEN LAROSE, born in Michigan, raised in Detroit, and convicted of terrorism-related crimes, currently serving time in federal prison. She's only 54 but, by your standards, she would have come really close to receiving the white woman pass.

 

To be fair to Larose, a.k.a. Jihad Jane, she was never charged or convicted of being involved in a plot to sabotage an airliner. LaRose was charged with trying to recruit Islamic terrorists to wage violent Jihad and of plotting to murder the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who had drawn a cartoon of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.

 

The entire TSA search-and-delay program is a very expensive farce. Question: How many real attempts or plots by a passenger have been prevented by TSA procedures. Answer: None that we know of (and TSA doesn't publish statistics). In terms of risk probabilities, where are you at the highest risk of violent death: while in an airliner, while in your car, while in on a train, while outside in a thunderstorm, while walking down a street in a major city's "rough" neighbourhood? Hint: while in an airliner is the SAFEST place to be. There is a place for airport screen, but not the system that exists now. Currently, its a shotgun approach that impacts many people, often results in injustice against innocent travelers and doesn't thwart real terrorists.

 

I suppose the next step will be for the TSA to imitate the massacre of the Cathars (a Protestant sect) in 1209. The local Catholics protected the Cathars from the Papal army so that the soldiers could not identify the Cathars. So, to ensure the peace and spiritual safety of the village of Béziers, the Papal legate gave the order for the final assault: Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius. "Kill them [all]. For the Lord knows those that are his own." (Also translated as "Kill them all; let God sort them out.")

DrBen, to be fair, I wasn't promoting the sanity of the TSA program, which I agree is a farce. I was questioning the wisdom of excluding 60-year-old white women from whatever restrictions or suspicions may help law enforcement or the military protect us.

The 60 something women are a very risky bunch. I remember this Monty Python skit

second half of clip)

 

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LOL! :D

I wonder when this goes into effect. I just traveled with a full two-body rig and lenses from 14mm to 500mm. As usual, I just left them in the ThinkTank roller bag and let them go through the carry-on bag screening. No eyebrow was raised.

On my last long flight on Air India from Delhi to Chicago (17 hours or so), I was concussed, bleeding, and in a wheel chair, and thereby by-passed most security.

 

Like the commercial bus trip in 1961 from Kansas to Sacramento, I'm thinking this is an experience I won't repeat. It was the Thuggi - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

On my last long flight on Air India from Delhi to Chicago (17 hours or so), I was concussed, bleeding, and in a wheel chair, and thereby by-passed most security.

 

Like the commercial bus trip in 1961 from Kansas to Sacramento, I'm thinking this is an experience I won't repeat. It was the Thuggi - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

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Faust. How comes it then that thou art out of hell?

Meph. Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.

 

Not pretty. ;-)

 

Glad you made it through.

Not pretty. ;-)

 

Glad you made it through.

Four or five flights a year, so not a frequent flyer. Never been frisked. The only times I've seen anyone searched was a young Chinese girl whose clothes were so tight a bandaid could have been detected and an old blue haired Jewish lady. Probably the only sure way to avoid a TSA search would be to change name to Muhamid.

Chinese girl . . . Jewish lady . . . Muhamid [sic].

Given the prejudice of so much of Western society and also embedded in your "joke," I doubt anyone would change their name to Muhammad to avoid trouble.

Given the prejudice of so much of Western society

Get back to us on prejudice, Fred, after we all have seen how San Francisco greets the non violent Patriot Prayer Rally there this week end.

If you travel a lot, or would simply rather take the short line, you can sign up for the US Preferred Traveler program, aka., GOES. You can keep your shoes, keep your belt, and keep your laptop and cameras in their respective bags. GOES is, in effect, an intensive pre-check, which includes a photograph, fingerprints, and a background check by the FBI. You apply for pre-clearance, then schedule an interview with TSA. You are issued an RFID card (in a foil pouch), and include your registration number when you make a booking.

 

Even without GOES, I would get preferred treatment at most civilized airports (California, Florida and Massachusetts excluded) due to my age. There is no age requirement for GOES.

Get back to us on prejudice, Fred, after we all have seen how San Francisco greets the non violent Patriot Prayer Rally there this week end.

 

We greeted it with an afternoon of music at City Hall. What's your point?

BTW, leaving Detroit, for the first time, this Wednesday, I had to pull my camera bodies out of the bag. The guy attending, also had me pull out one lens, out of three loose in the bag. I was transferring from an International flight and that may have had some impact.

i was told that camera lenses appear black in xrays.

i was told that camera lenses appear black in xrays.

I've always wanted to spend some Sunday in the courthouse, passing various objects through the Xray machine, and see what they look like in an Xray.

I've always wanted to spend some Sunday in the courthouse, passing various objects through the Xray machine, and see what they look like in an Xray.

 

Be sure to wear your lead BVDs

I've always wanted to spend some Sunday in the courthouse,

When the machines were in their "infancy" they were presented to the NYC Prisons as a way to identify incoming weapons and contraband. A mentor and friend was a Warden, and because his life and those his staff hung in the balance, they spent a week end doing just that. Technology has advanced tremendously in the ensuing decades, but my read now would be what theirs was then, certainly use it, but don't entirely trust it.

I am a green card holder, I am pre-checked and they already have all kinds of info on me including fingerprints. To get full clearance from pre-check status at the airport you need to go to a pre-check checkpoint. If you go to a regular checkpoint you will only not have to take your shoes off and not get thru the body scan. Pre-check is also only available on certain airlines. I am Canadian and travel a lot between USA and Canada so I also have Nexus which is a program that gives clearance and priority at airports. Back to the topic of this thread: I don't think this was ever implemented. I always travel with a carry-on backpack full of camera gear and never had to take it out even at regular checkpoints - last travel was only a few weeks ago.

No difference over here in Europe. I've had 4 foreign holidays this year (so far!) - Spain, Poland, Greece and France- and not been asked about camera gear.

Ipads and laptops have to be unpacked, liquids are limited to 100ml in a bottle, and that's about it.

 

Passport control at Charles de Gaul was atrocious, but that's France for you :)

 

My wife wants to go to Iceland before Christmas...

I've had to empty out my bags a few times - usually because there's so much in there that security can't see properly. I got "that's a lot of camera gear" last time I flew from Chicago. I'm glad they're at least not checking the weight limits. For some reason they're much keener on swiping the outside of a lens for explosive residue than looking through it to see whether some of the 3kg lens is a sealed lump of semtex - but I've been assured that all of this is much more to do with passenger reassurance than desire to protect the plane. People have pointed out that the liquid ban is largely pointless too - some chemists have suggested that if you wanted to make an explosive on a plane, the ingredients are more likely to be powdered. Normally they just scan the bag very slowly, though; I've tried suggesting that it would be simpler for me just to open the bag so they can have a look, but they weren't keen.

 

On the plus side, the new thing about putting lithium ion batteries in the hold rather than cabin (after years of being told to do the reverse) worries me less now a friend has told me that passenger planes can dump a baggage container mid-flight - if there's a fire, they'd probably just dump everything rather than risk the plane. I'm still very unhappy with any threat to put the laptop in the hold, though - contractually I'm not allowed to do that with my work laptop, and things go missing in airports way too often. I've recently been on a plane where they ran out of overhead storage and insisted on checking things, and I pulled rank with the "there's $10K of fragile glass in this bag, can you please find somewhere not in the hold to put it?" argument; fortunately the crew had some spare storage.

 

I'm a firm believer that a vanishingly small number of people want to blow me up (despite my personality), and that the cost to the economy and customer happiness of the fall-out of terrorist attacks is still a win for the terrorists. Obviously there's a balance, though, and I guess we need people to feel safe. Normally I have multiple phones and multiple laptops with me, in addition to camera gear (I work in computers, 3-4 laptops is usual). I've got the process quite streamlined, but I still cause trouble in the security lines when I try to explain why I need five security trays to unpack everything.

 

From a security perspective, I've several times accidentally carried a small penknife through security without getting stopped for it. But people in the airline industry have gleefully shared some ways of sabotaging a plane without any need of tools (which I won't report here, even though I was only given an overview), so I doubt I'm actually increasing the risk. If anything, I remain surprised some people can carry a tripod on a plane, since it's effectively a mace.

 

My biggest concern is that the TSA will insist on me unlocking laptops at immigration. That's a significant issue for my employer, since I have commercially sensitive emails. I've been tempted to carry a non-disclosure agreement for the TSA to sign if I'm every stopped.