# How does TSA screening work at VERY small airports? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 4, 2023, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976 "2023-06-04T08:44:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/61 "2023-10-12T21:18:14Z")
Have fun in YAK! ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/62 "2023-10-13T03:37:54Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Have fun in YAK YKM, actually. YAK is in Yakutat, Alaska, population 662, and presumably even smaller and less-trafficked than this place. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2023, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/63 "2023-10-13T20:50:27Z")
LSE (La Crosse) 4 gates, one TSA unit with 3 workers. It took me 9 minutes to get through and that was with having to wait for the 1st agent (checks IDs) to do some conveyor belt tasks. Brian ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2023, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/64 "2023-10-14T08:47:30Z")
There’s a decent restaurant at YAK at least. Actually not a bad little airport! ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/65 "2023-12-21T18:59:44Z")
Zombifying this thread to share an amusing Twitter thread - last night, a Delta flight from London to SeaTac was unable to land because of extremely dense fog and had to divert to Yakima. > ---
**Author:** ![bobsmom101](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobsmom101/32/2867_2.png) [@bobsmom101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobsmom101)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/66 "2023-12-21T19:27:02Z")
Slight hijack since not an airport. Last summer a bunch of other geriatrics and I went on a raft trip that started at Glen Canyon Dam. This has got to be the cushiest TSA gig on the planet. Two guys (one armed) emerged from a tiny shed and rummaged through our snacks and water bottles. I wonder what they do the rest of the day. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/67 "2023-12-21T19:34:28Z")
There was TSA on a whitewater raft? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/68 "2023-12-21T19:35:19Z")
It’s not about small airports but The Athletic website ran an [article](https://theathletic.com/5139122/2023/12/20/nfl-travel-ny-giants-behind-scenes/) about travel for an NFL team. It had this to say about the TSA check. > The security process is nothing like commercial passengers waiting in serpentine lines in terminals. > > “You have to give your ID to TSA, and TSA randomly selects guys,” Gray said. “So if you get picked, you have to go through a metal detector. They check your bag and you go to the plane. But if you’re not picked, you just go straight to the plane. ---
**Author:** ![bobsmom101](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobsmom101/32/2867_2.png) [@bobsmom101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobsmom101)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/69 "2023-12-21T19:49:55Z")
Hardly whitewater, and the TSA was protecting the dam from us codgers ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/70 "2023-12-21T19:58:23Z")
I’ve flown many times out of Hanscom Field in Bedford MA which was used at the time by the Red Sox. 2012-2015. They just went straight from the bus to the plane and vice versa, without even going through the building (a gate was opened for them between the parking lot and the airfield). When I was flying on our corporate jet, I had to show ID, but it was not required to be a government issued ID and the guy checking my id was an FBO operator not TSA. I could drive up and walk into the building 15 minutes from flight time and that was plenty of time. Our CEO and CFO would leave it later than that. We wouldn’t leave them behind. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/71 "2023-12-21T20:10:54Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Zombifying this thread to share an amusing Twitter thread - last night, a Delta flight from London to SeaTac was unable to land because of extremely dense fog and had to divert to Yakima. Does Yakima even have customs and immigration? I’m guessing they just sat on the plan until the weather at SeaTac improved, and then flew over there. Also, do you have to be logged in to see all the comments on a Twitter thread? All I see is the initial post. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/72 "2023-12-21T20:17:23Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Does Yakima even have customs and immigration? No. According to the thread, the passengers had to stay on the plane while they bussed in customs officers from elsewhere, and eventually got them on a different flight to SeaTac after the fog cleared - without their luggage, because YKM doesn’t have the equipment to unload a plane that size and its flight crew had timed out. Delta ordered them pizza. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/73 "2023-12-21T21:31:51Z")
I’ve been the pilot in almost that same situation. It’s s shitty place to end up. HQ plans international arrivals with nearby alternate airports that don’t necessarily have customs. That’s more efficient than planning only customs-equipped alternate airports that are more distant. Because the expectation is you’ll arrive at the destination OK. Even if you do have to stop at that nearby non-customs airport to wait it’s not a crisis yet. Nobody gets on or off, then you reload with fuel only, and proceed to the destination a bit later once the weather permits. All nice and easy. Unless the plane breaks or the crew runs out of of workday before the weather improves. Then you are, to use an industry insider’s technical terminology, up shit creek. My last such mis-adventure before retirement got us airborne 5 minutes before we’d have been up shit creek and needing busses and on-call customs agents to drive an hour or more to where we’d trapped 200 people. Oops. But we did indeed snatch victory from the jaws of defeat that day. But boy howdy was it close. And took one hell of a lot of work by too many people to pull off. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2023, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/74 "2023-12-22T00:21:27Z")
My brother’s BFF is a licensed single-engine pilot, and since he’s a very successful businessman, he owns a couple of planes and flies them from place to place if he needs to go somewhere in the lower 48. When he came to Des Moines to visit my brother earlier this year, he chose to land in Winterset, about 25 miles SW of DSM, because he didn’t need to file some kind of paperwork that he would have if he’d flown directly into DSM. My brother picked him up, but he also told me later that some rural airports have cars available, unlocked and with the keys in the ignition, for these pilots to use if they want. They just have to return them reasonably clean and full of gas, and they also have ways to figure out very quickly if miscreants steal them. It’s a whole world we knew nothing about. As an aside, I’m currently reading this book, and it reminded me of the pen pal I had in the early 1990s who was a big fan of the band L.A. Guns. She knew that one of the band members had a pilot’s license, and was also rumored to have a serious cocaine habit, and thought about notifying the NTSB about this, “but he’s probably not the only one, and that includes some of the commercial pilots.” Anyway, Alex Lifeson is (was?) a licensed pilot, and the thought of him at the helm while flying in other ways was more than a bit scary. > **[My Effin' Life](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/my-effin-life-geddy-lee?variant=41044095303714)** > > The long-awaited memoir, generously illustrated with never-before-seen photos, from the iconic Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Rush bassist, and New York Times bestselling author of Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass. Geddy Lee is one of rock and... ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2023, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/75 "2023-12-22T00:27:30Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Anyway, Alex Lifeson is (was?) a licensed pilot, and the thought of him at the helm while flying in other ways was more than a bit scary. Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden is a licensed pilot who used to do commercial flights in between tours in addition to flying Ed Force One, the band’s custom 747, when the band was on the road. I believe he’s aged out of eligibility as of a few years ago, though. > **[Bruce Dickinson | Aviation and entrepreneurship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Dickinson#Aviation_and_entrepreneurship)** > > Dickinson learned to fly recreationally in Florida in the 1990s and now holds an airline transport pilot's licence. He regularly flew Boeing 757s in his role as captain for the now-defunct British charter airline Astraeus, which, from 16 September 2010, employed him as marketing director. One of his key roles in that position was to promote Astraeus' services by increasing their number of videos, leading to the Civil Aviation Authority releasing a video featuring Dickinson on Following Astraeus'... ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2023, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976/76 "2023-12-22T00:36:02Z")
That looks twice as big as the Presque Isle ME airport when I was there more than 30 years ago! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-tsa-screening-work-at-very-small-airports/984976.md?page=3)