nightmares at the airport

[Ron Bose]

Does Kodak sell seals to make an opened box look unopened ?

I now that an evil perp could dress like a photographer with a box of sheet film with something nasty hidden inside, but it's not likely is it ?

These people try to look as ordinary as they can, so they aren't noticed. For pete's sake a pen (x-rayed or not) can be used to disable someone.

I'm beginning to hate what humans are doing to this world. Luckily, I see the good things that nature does through the ground-glass of my camera.

I'm glad you got it through Chris ...

[Graeme Hird]

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Travelling in Australia is just as bad.

They've got a funny logic here: the security staff will stop you carrying on all the usual stuff, but if you sit in "business" class (Aussie for first class) they'll serve your meal with stainless steel cutlery and a small glass bottle of wine. Apparently, terrorists are too poor to fly business class (which incidently is why we lock up all refugees who arrive by leaky boat - everyone knows that's the prefered travel mode for terrorists ..... ).

I was not allowed to take my spare AA alkaline batteries loose in my camera bag, but they were fine if they were inside the reusable cardboard box they came in. The security staff taped four of them together with electrical tape and put them back in my bag. Apparently, a single loose battery feels like the barrel of a gun if held to the back of the neck of airline staff, and I'm too stupid to be able to open the battery box or unwrap the taped batteries in flight ....

Why do they go so far over the top? No terrorist is going to use the same mode of attack in the next ten or twenty years. The authorities are onto it - why make it hard for themselves? They've done the planes, trains and automobiles - the next logical delivery mode is ships. I know I'll get a visit from ASIO for saying so, but my guess is the next major attack will come in the form of a VERY large explosive device in a sea container or ocean-going boat, detonated in a sensitive port within a city. I hope they are looking for that with as much intensity as they subject ordinary travellers to.

Rant over .....

Carry on.

[Henry Friedman]

I think you should change the title of your post. Perhaps 'Inconvenience at the airport' would be more appropriate. A "nightmare" is when you or a loved one gets on a airliner that is blown up or crashed into a building.

Now, I have no great love for airport security or any illusions about its effectiveness. I, too, have felt the need for special arrangements for shipping of important film. But until we adopt a lifestyle and foreign policy that makes us less abhorrent to others, you might just as well get used to it.

[Jim Rice]

From news of the weird:

"An American Airlines flight was cancelled after the local Transportation Security Administration offical ordered a bomb search (which proved fruitless) based only on information he said came from a psychic. (Fort Myers, FL)"

[Don Bryant]

The problem with the airport security system is that we (they) are looking for weapons not terrorists.

[Jim Rhoades]

I note with much amusement the blaming of John Ashcroft et al. The truth is that airport security, police etc. are restricted from doing their jobs due to the boogieman called profiling. If security were to carefully screen and check dark skinned men 18 to 30 years old with Arab sounding names they would be accused of profiling. In New Jersey two or more such charges and you can lose your job or go to jail. This has been brought to you by liberal politicians and the concept of political correctness, something that hardly fits the John Ashcroft mold.

That is why 90 year old grannies with pins in their hips are being given routine 11. The same for photographers. The terrorists started the idea of using cameras to smuggle stuff because everyone has one. The inconvenience to the public is a side benefit.

Now I know that some bleeding heart out there will point out that profiling does not work. Why just look at Timothy McVeigh, our homegrown terrorist. OK, I’ll look. Let’s see, 1 out of 50? 100? 1,000? I like betting the odds.

OK, now flame away.

[jnantz]

the problem is that these security people are just doing their job.

i am usually one of the folks they (security, police &C) scrutinize, because if my ethnic background --- what can you do, not have them screen anyone just because they are ticked-off? have what seems to be film in a box? or a piece of photo "stuff" they have never seen before?

didn't they (tsa) recently take a large handgun from a congressman and fine him lots of $$?

i never thought i would say this. but while it seems to be a PITA, i am kind of glad they do it.

[Francis Abad]

Unfortunately this is the world we live in. I for one feel that there is still room for more security - the consequences nowadays (e.g. WTC, Bali, Madrid, etc.) far outweigh any annoyance (myself included - Cagliari airport) we might feel at the time. I am under no illusions that I live in a safe world.

[Scott Atkinson]

Fortunately, I don't have to fly with my 8x10. I take 4x5 and shoot Readyload--they can open it, which they do--but no problem. If I did bring the 8x10, I'd take a cue from others I know and download it myself in a changing bag, then FedEx the whole thing (even film I was holding for a second run) to my lab. Or maybe, on a long trip, FedEx batches to my own home. (If it's a long assignment, the lab can give you phone feedback on your earlier stuff.) So am I nuts? Is FedEx in turn X-raying my film to death?

[Juan V.]

Personally, I just let them scan it. But I photograph as a hobby, not a profession.

On the topic of photographing "sensitive" structures, I am a structural engineer by profession and can honestly say that photographing buildings, bridges, etc would provide no real edge to someone who knows what they're doing. If you had even a year of engineering education and ill will you would have enough knowledge to plan an attack. Structures are really quite simple and any reasonable attack would be focused on the basics, not on attacking some critical "weak point" of the structure. A suspension bridge is a suspension bridge is a suspension bridge. Any engineering text book and a little thought would do the job.

I was stopped from photographing the Verrazano Bridge here in NYC a few months ago because I was using a tripod and focusing an 8x10 (yes, I had the necessary tripod permit). The police allowed the tourists next to me to snap away merrily with point-and-shoots/digital/video because they "were told to stop any focusing intently on the bridge." Ahhh. So the real trick is to look aloof.