Airport Security

TSA flagged my camera bag in the X-ray machine. They took almost everything out and reran through the x-ray my rocket blower, ring flash power cord, eclipse cleaning solution and get this...my pec-pads! Really? The Vagabond Mini and ABR-800 ringflash was not an issue.

BTW, they gave me everything back including my rocket blower, and thank god, my pec-pads were returned to me! They are so suspiciously dangerous! When is this "security" madness going to stop? We still have to take our shoes off. Plain silly.

Anyway, off to Hawaii I go!

I fly pretty regularly around Europe and get kinda annoyed by security too, but at least airport security on this side of the Atlantic isn't as bad as what you have to deal with. When I've flown from Atlanta, Los Angeles and elsewhere in the States, the security has been ridiculous. TSA really are a tad fanatical and on more than one occasion I've felt a little singled out, especially at LAX. I understand that narcotics smugglers are getting more creative with their courier methods these days (which is probably why they scanned your pac pads as the X-ray machine will actually show up organic matter, not just metals as some believe), but surely sniffer dogs would make people feel less singled out and invaded? I remember the last time I went though LAX, I had to stand for ages while a security guy swabbed my laptop meticulously, which was not only annoying but also mildly offensive as I'm the last person on earth who'd be carrying explosives or narcotics onto a flight. I realise the need to avoid obvious ethnic profiling but honestly, a pale skinned hippy type like myself is hardly going to bomb a plane in the name of some deity.

Furthermore, there's a difference between ensuring everyone has a comfortable and safe flight, and spreading a feeling of paranoia. I think many airport security guards are guilty of the latter. As much as certain people would like to keep everyone believing that the whole world is under a constant simmering threat from terrorist bogeymen, I think the real risk of that is very slim indeed.

I think a lot of airport security guards need better training in people skills, so they stop coming across as police state robots and more as people providing a service to ensure a comfortable flight for everyone.

Just some food for thought on this subject...............

This isn't a pro-TSA or anti-TSA post. I'd prefer to see it disbanded since it's a group of non-LE doing LE work and their training standards are pretty piss poor.

I used to be in a position where I got to operate a scanner that's similar, but probably a little less "techish" than what TSA uses. I don't know, it's been almost ten years ago. That particular scanner, if the operator was competent, could pick out a whole lot of stuff and identify it, but every so often a bag would come through that had enough stuff in it and the image was pretty much a scrambled mess.

When I recently flew out to the West Coast, and I wasn't happy about just because of the TSA issue, I was actually pleasantly surprised. I had my camera bag with me as my carry on. Along with the camera and two lens, I had stashed in my netbook, assorted cords, IPhone mobile charger, camera cleaning supplies and a mess of assorted crap. That bag went through three TSA checkpoints. In the two checkpoints that the bag didn't get a second look, the TSA staff that I interacted with or observed came across as professional and competent without any of the horror stories that are so common.

The bag did get pulled at the third checkpoint and searched. Again, the staff came across as professional, but they were all young and while they all seemed competent, they came across as rookies who seemed like the only reason they were all working together was because it was a Saturday at a small airport and the older TSA folks with seniority got weekends off just because of that seniority.

With those scanners, there can be some of the operator's subjectiveness thrown into the equation when it comes to pulling a bag to be hand searched and I can tell you right now that when I ran a scanner (BTW, it was non TSA, non federal government), I didn't want to be that guy

Lesson here is if you don't want to get stopped at the TSA check point with your camera bag and have it tossed, then don't pack a lot of crap into it. Then again, if I fly again, my bag will probably still be packed full of crap that I don't want on my checked bag. Their turf, their rules unfortunately.

Was it such an inconvenience to you? Sometimes things just look plain ole whacky on the scanners.

I get Rocket Blowers confiscated on a regular basis. Its understandable, even my dad said it looked like a grenade. I just never remember to buy regular looking blowers.

Enjoy your time in Hawaii, hope we see lots of pictures. You haven't seen anything, wait until they tell you they need to take the big white lens off your camera so they can look inside because "it's really dark in there". Remember, while this is being said you can't touch your stuff to show them how the lens comes off. If I'd been thinking, I'd have told them "Hang on, I'll tell the tiny terrorist who lives in there to turn his light on" and then yelled at the camera/lens "Osama, turn the light on in there. The security people want to see what you're doing in there". Unfortunately, it was around midnight in Honolulu and I was beat after a long day of surfing. I asked for a supervisor, he showed up and put the camera/lens in the bin and told me to move on.
I've never had my rocket blower taken away.

I've never had to take my equipment out of the bag, which is kind of surprising. even round trip to south africa this month.

robertwsimpson wrote in post #15019924
I've never had to take my equipment out of the bag, which is kind of surprising. even round trip to south africa this month.

Considering you were in South Africa, it's surprising they didn't steal anything.

I carry everything on. I don't let my camera stuff out of my sight, and all my checked bags had locks.

Even so, they're sneaky buggers. I lived in SA for the first 25 years of my life, and have had stuff stolen literally from right under my nose there. Johannesburg airport, in particular, is notorious for theft.

yeah that's where we flew to. I am also 6'4" and 220 lbs... there are smaller targets to go for if you want to steal something.

KhanhD wrote in post #15019792
Was it such an inconvenience to you? Sometimes things just look plain ole whacky on the scanners.

I get Rocket Blowers confiscated on a regular basis. Its understandable, even my dad said it looked like a grenade. I just never remember to buy regular looking blowers.

No one ever gave me any hassle about the rocket blower and in fact, the person who hand searched my bag was a fellow amateur photographer.

BTW, I noticed something funny the other day. I made sure I left the lens cleaning solution at home, but the sensor cleaning solution actually went on the flight with me.

I find its usually a 50/50 shot as to whether my Pelican gets opened, and if it does, its a 50/50 shot as to whether I lose my Rocket Blower or not.

Glad you think it's silly.

I'll take having my camera bag hand searched and having to take my shoes off over getting blown up on an airplane any day.

If only the TSA actually did anything meaningful instead of putting on a show for the public to make them believe they're safer.