Second TSA bag check at the gate

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was at the airport this morning and went through the TSA security checkpoint as usual but as we were lined up at the gate to board the airplane the airline announced there would be a 2nd TSA check at the gate.

The TSA agent opened a few people’s carry-ons, including mine, but really didn’t appear to actually look for anything. He unzipped the bags, looked on top but never moved anything out of the way to look further down in the bag. He probably did this for 10 or so people then stood near the gate just looking at people. The flight attendants didn’t look concerned as far as I could tell.

I’ve never seen his 2nd check, what could have possibly been going on?

2

Training exercise?

3

Maybe there was another agent watching your reaction? If you had been especially fidgety or nervous, maybe you would have been flagged for even more “checking”.

4

I have seen this. I believe it’s a random additional check. The intention would be that random additional checks cannot be anticipated by the bad guys and therefore are harder for said bad guys to work around. It’s an additional layer of protection against terrorist attacks on airplanes. Given recent events, we may see more of these.

I would also speculate that the TSA may use more of these checks as they are under increasing pressure to reduce TSA wait times at known security points. If they’re shaving off time on the checkpoints, there may be a trade off in terms of thoroughness. This may be a relatively low impact way to account for that.

If the agents had actually received a tip about your flight, your level of inconvenience would be a whole lot higher. There’s also the ever lovely freeze-in-place when a person bypasses security. Everyone gets to stand like statues while TSA and police are looking for that person. Those are really fun, especially when travelling with small children.

ETA: IME, the additional check at gate seems to occur more regularly at some airports than others (St. Louis, for example). Those airports may be under an additional security threat overall.

5

Seems to me to be another act in the TSA’s Grand Theater of Security.

6

I always thought Israeli airports would be the best in the world in terms of airport security–but they are sloppy like everyone else:

But naturally after writing the article: “The Israel Airports Authority filed a police complaint against Suleiman for impersonating a public employee.”

7

I disagree.

This is actually one thing that makes sense. True, the rest not so much.

8

Were you flying to Turkey?

9

No, it was a domestic US flight.

10

Right - random.

So random pat down. Random second check at the gate. Etc.

11

Ah, sorry, that was meant to have a smiley at the end.

12

I think there was a period after 9/11 where they did this for every flight. This article says they brought back random screenings at gates in 2009.

13

I recall this happening once in my last hundred or so flights, and it was “random”, not every passenger. No explanation, so I’m not sure the reason.