Do Pilots Go Through Airport Security?

[Magiver]

@MEBuckner

Well, I would kinda hope there’s an infrastructure to verify their claims somewhere along the line, though.

There is but not necessarily through the regular screening process. It doesn’t make sense to send a pilot certified to carry a gun through a scanner.

[MEBuckner]

@constantine

Did you read the article that I linked to?

Of course there is infrastructure somewhere along the line. The question is whether we want to implement that at the airport. That turns out to be a more complicated (actually a much more complicated) undertaking than it might first appear. Allowing people with a pilot id through would provide an exploitable hole in the security system because it turns out to be kind of hard to guard against impostor pilots.

Actually, the article doesn’t really talk about the issue of searching airline pilots much. It mostly talks about whether or not people with “government security clearances” should be searched. I’ve never really heard anyone suggest that people with “government security clearances” should not go through the same airport security procedures as everyone else; I suspect that the main people suggesting that people with government security clearances be able to bypass airport security are people with government security clearances.

…because it turns out to be kind of hard to guard against impostor pilots.

That’s kind of disturbing, but maybe I’m reading this wrong. My point (in post 19) is that I certainly hope that at some damned point the identity (and not how much hand sanitizer he has) of someone claiming to be a pilot is very carefully checked before they’re allowed to get behind the controls of an airplane. Because if someone with a pilot’s uniform or reasonable facsimile thereof can get to an airplane–whether we’re talking about a dedicated jihadist or just some fruitcake who’s pretty good at Microsoft Flight Simulator and has always wanted to fly a jumbo jet–that’s a pretty massive security hole.

[Magiver]

Yes, there is a screening process for pilots. You man not see it, but it’s there.

[Jormungandr]

@Foldup_Rabbit

What about people who just work on the other side of the checkpoint? Janitors, baristas, till workers at McDonald’s, etc? Do they have to go through security every day as a fun precursor to work?

I don’t know if airports here in the US do, but they didn’t at some airports abroad 2 years ago.

Journalists in Al Qaeda Airlines hoax

Californiaaviation.org acquired by Travel-Easier.com

[Broomstick]

@constantine

Of course there is infrastructure somewhere along the line. The question is whether we want to implement that at the airport. That turns out to be a more complicated (actually a much more complicated) undertaking than it might first appear. Allowing people with a pilot id through would provide an exploitable hole in the security system because it turns out to be kind of hard to guard against impostor pilots.

And once again, I point out that being a real pilot and a real terrorist are not mutually exclusive. Didn’t we learn that on September 11, 2001?

I’m not against security, however, people need to get over the notion that anything can be made completely safe.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Another sobering story - not sure typical screening would’ve stopped this scumbag, though: Federal Express Flight 705 - Wikipedia

[ChrisBooth12]

Because even if he wanted to crash the plane he would need a way of overpowering at least 1 if not two people in the cockpit, who says they are both in on it?

[mlees]

@ChrisBooth12

Because even if he wanted to crash the plane he would need a way of overpowering at least 1 if not two people in the cockpit, who says they are both in on it?

I saw Thunderball!

You just hook up your little cannister of nerve gas to the aircrafts enviornmental system, and get rid of the flight deck crew not in on your little scheme.

Easy peasy!

[Markxxx]

Of course everyone should be searched, it’s not terribly difficult to plant something on someone without them knowing it.

You’d be shocked at how easy it is to bribe someone. TSAs aren’t always the best background either. A fews years back we had TSAs out of O’Hare and Midway that showed up as former gang members with criminal backgrounds.

I remember in the late 80s we had a bunch of FBI clerks that were selling their co-workers out for the tune of, what amount to, a little over a hundred bucks.

As long as there are people, somone is gonna be greedy enough to bribe

[Richard_Pearse]

@Broomstick

And once again, I point out that being a real pilot and a real terrorist are not mutually exclusive. Didn’t we learn that on September 11, 2001?

I’m not against security, however, people need to get over the notion that anything can be made completely safe.

I just wish the rules allowed for the use of some common sense.

I sometimes fly in and out of a fairly quiet regional airfield that has a couple of jet services a day. The rules here in Australia are that security screening must be in place at these type of airfields for a certain time frame either side of the departure of a commercial jet (that is to say that screening is not required for turbo props and non airline aircraft.)

As my crew and I are operating our own non-airline aircraft it’s always annoying when we have to depart while the security screening is in progress because we have to be screened whereas we’d otherwise be able to go directly through a gate in the fence to our aircraft and avoid the terminal completely.

Where it gets silly though is that for some time the rules allowed baggage handlers to go “airside” without having to be screened, but all crew and passengers on any aircraft departing did have to be screened. Because the security screen wasn’t setup to screen our check-in sized luggage we were allowed to operate as “baggage handlers” for the purpose of loading our aircraft via the external gate. Prior to departing we were deemed to be crew again and had to walk back to the terminal, go through the screening, and back out to the aircraft.

This would allow us, if we wanted to, to load anything we liked on the aircraft with no oversight, a nuclear bomb if we had access to one, prior to being screened.

If only they had the ability to say “screening you is not going to achieve anything, use the gate as you wish.”