I’m traveling to Italy the first two weeks of October, flying Delta from Atlanta to Lemasia (in Catanzare), AlItalia from Lemasia to Florence, and Delta again from Nice back to Atlanta. My husband watches a lot of Fox News channel and delights in telling me about 80-year old grandmas and Al Gore being strip searched.
He maintains that the airport agents are scumbags they hire right out of jail with no security experience or clearance. I am a reasonably young, fairly attractive (if I may say so) lady. Hubby thinks the scumbag security will take advantage of their position of authority and the heightened security awareness these days and, if not subject me to a strip search, will certainly use the opportunity to grope and paw my body.
Does anyone know the actual stats on how many people are getting searched and/or groped, other than the hyped-up media stories?
Wow, those are swell things for him to say to alarm you. That strikes me very odd.
I don’t know about stats, but I got pulled out of line when boarding a flight home from Charlotte, NC and had my stuff searched. I was gone over with a magnetic wand but was not touched in any way by anyones hands.
What proof does he have that airport security agents are scumbags that they hire out of jail? I thought that part of the post Sept 11 was about checking crimminal records and such of airport workers.
I’m sorry, but I find it odd that your husband says security personel will “certainly use the opportunity to grope and paw my body”. What a creepy thing to say to someone. At any rate, I imagine you could refuse a groping at the risk of being bumped from a flight or request a female security officer to perform any needed search of your person.
Ditto. Well, not the Charlotte, NC part. It was very quick and painless, and the only articles of clothing I had to remove were my shoes. I think your husband needs to stop watching Fox News.
For what it’s worth, I’ve flown 16 times since Sept. 11 and been pulled for searching once. As far as I can tell, they usually pull three or four people on most flights.
I travel a lot on business (2-3 weeks out of every month).
Needless to say I go through a lot of airport security lines.
First off airline security people don’t do strip searches. they may wand you and if necessary touch some parts of your body. Like above the ankles to ensure that you don’t have a knife taped there. (guess they saw Dirty Harry)
You best bet to avoid all the hassle is to not set off the beep when you walk through the metal detector. some suggestions:
Wait until the guy in front is clear of the machine. If you are too close together the machine will pick him up as well as you and beep!
Take off all the metal! Jewelry, credit cards, change, the Binacca breath spray, and don’t forget your cell phone. If you have a large metal watch take it off also.
What I do is I carry a small breifcase type bag on a trans-atlantic flight for for CD player, books to read and medications. As I approach security I place all my metal objects into my bag and let them x-ray it. If you trip the metal detector there is a 100% chance you will be wanded, if you don’t trip the detector the chance is much lower maybe 5%.
From what I have heard you have a greater chance of being pinched in Rome then you will of being searched. Have fun
Butt pinched or more likely wallet pinched in Rome, I’ll wager (except we’re not going to Rome, but anyway . . . ). Thanks for the advice; I will definitely heed it.
Zette: “What proof does he have that airport security agents are scumbags that they hire out of jail?” Absolutely none. As Fretful Porpentine said, he needs to stop watching Fox News. It seems this is where he gets these crazy ideas. Next time he brings it up I’m going to ask him why is it he wants to creep me out; I didn’t really think he was trying to alarm me but more like prepare me for what he thinks might happen. I hope the latter is true and not the former, or I have some serious thinking to do.
Thanks all for easing my mind! And I do plan to have a wonderful time. Mmmm, fresh porcinis and truffles, Parma ham, 120-year old balsamic vinegar, oh, and I hear there’s art in Florence, too.
Hmm, its almost as if Fox news were trying to report Italy as an uncivilised, un-American sort of place.
There is absolutely no way on earth that ex-cons would be used on security, to report such a thing or state it, is irresponsible and totally laughable, completely destroys the credibility of the source, what a complete dick!!
If you have a criminal record you won’t be employed in any capacity whatsoever in most European airports if not all , not even serving the coffee.(well there has been some criticism of the laxness of Greek airports)
Italy, like much of Europe, has had to learn to deal with terrorism over many years, you can imagine that we in Yurp have a certain amount of expertise.
Think about the security logic here, you are travelling with your partner, you have a US passport and are arriving from the US, you have luggage and a return ticket. You are travelling from a country that is a net importer of illegal drugs, so its most unlikely you will be bringing them in.
Anyway, even if you are frisked, this will be carried out by female staff, the risk of a charge of assault would be much too embarrassing for any European nation as it would be a violation of your basic rights.
Al Gore was certainly not strip searched, he was frisked and his luggage checked, after all it makes no sense to frisk someone and not check their luggage.
Why worry about foreign airports when this sort of stuff is alleged to occur in the US
There are loads of these kinds of stories around concerning the fact that US security staff are not Federal employees but are contract workers and are not up to the job, or worse, they abuse their positions and are not proffessional.
This hardly inspires confidence in US security staff
Maybe Hubby should be more worried about getting on the aircraft rather than getting off, after all, if you were a terrorist you wouldn’t be likely to be carying the bomb off the aircraft when you arrived, it would be all a bit silly.
Well, casdave, I think he was talking about the US airports; I guess I was not clear on that. I think he has heard what you mentioned, that they are contract workers, abuse their position, and are not professional. He’s probably (and I plan to ask him) talking specifically about our provincial teeny-tiny airport from which we are flying a Delta ASA (love those scary prop planes) to get to Atlanta.
May I just mention that (in my opinion) Fox News ** is the sorriest excuse for a news channel, nay, any channel, available**? But that’s another thread . . .
Ditto on what Rick said above. I fly transAtlantic an awful lot, and they don’t do strip searches, they may wand you, and may pat you down, and may make you take off your shoes and run them through the X-Ray. But there are so many people around, including real police, that no one is going to pull anything, nor do they except in extreme cases.
I think you are thinking of the US Customs service, which does occasionally strip-search people in custody if they are suspected of smuggling drugs. Still, I’ve never known anyone that it happened to.
Normally they just pull a people aside and search their baggage. If anyone does try to “paw” you or strip-search you, request someone of the same gender to do so instead. They can’t deny that request, or you can sue for sexual harassment
It sounds to me that a certain fellow might want to work a little bit on that “fantasy/reality border” feature that’s part of a human brain package. It’s got some leakage.
Just don’t ask the check-in ticket agent if that pound of C4 you put up your rectum counts as a carry-on item, and you should be fine.
I was in Panama for Carnaval. They did rather thorough searches as you entered the area of the city that was roped off (they roped off several blocks of the city for festivities.) Panama has very military-like police and several different kinds of police too – tourism branch, youth branch, etc. – and some of them carry M-16s!
Because of the huge crowds, vast public drinking (and because a frighteningly high percentage of locals are licenced to carry firearms) they search every person entering the area and they’ll confiscate anything knife-like, including pens, and any other weapon, drugs, or “dangerous” item.
Women are directed to a female officer for a “pat-down” (guys get one too). There’s no groping, but they did put their hands on my hips to make sure I didn’t have anything tucked away in my belt, the small of my back and kind of under my arms where you could tape something like a knife to your body. I was wearing a skirt, so she just peeked at my ankles, but if I’d been wearing jeans, I’m sure she would’ve squeezed my ankles to be sure I didn’t have anything tucked in my boots.
That was by far the most extensive and intrusive search of my person that I have ever experienced. I have travelled by air since Sept. 11 – and nothing at all compares to that.
At one airport I was one of the random passengers taken aside for a more thorough search. I only had to remove my shoes and my jacket (easier to check its pockets). One security guy rummaged through my carry-on bag, and another checked to make sure my shoes weren’t wired and that nothing dangerous was in my jacket pockets. No big deal and it took – at most – five minutes (mostly waiting for the other two random passengers to be searched).
Just pack wisely. Don’t bring a nail file in your carry on, or nose-hair scissors, or your Swiss Army knife, you get the idea – use common sense and you’ll have few hassles.
I went to Italy in November. (You can read all about my adventures at my web site.) Security at Fiumicino consisted of walking under the “Nothing To Declare” sign. I did see some Middle-Eastern-appearing people being searched pretty extensively, but most of us just walked right on by.
On the way home, however, in Philly, I was frisked rather intimately by an elderly black woman wearing a “Jesus is Lord” button. (I gave an involuntary little “Woo-Hoo!” as she grabbed the boys.)
All in all, I’d say the chance of a body cavity search is minimal.
You guys have really eased my mind. Thanks for the info.
I’m figuring my 70-year old, 5’ tall mother will probably set off the alarm with her zippered travel vest she likes to wear and she’ll be the one to get searched. We both could probably pass for Middle Eastern-looking if you squinted, so I won’t be surprised, but I won’t be alarmed, either, if they pat us down.
DoctorJ, I’m looking forward to reading your e-mail journal when I get the time. Thanks for sharing!
This thread reminds me of a funny incident suffered by a friend’s grandmother.
Annoyed at being pulled out of line and questioned by airport staff, granny responded to one of the usual, “Anything to declare?” or, “Do you have anything you shouldn’t?” questions (I forget the details) with a sarcastic, “Yes, I have half a kilo of heroin in my knickers!”
Unfortunately, they didn’t laugh and a strip search commenced! (Although the immediate staff didn’t do it, they took her to a room with female staff etc).
She learnt her lesson and seems to delight in telling the story nowadays.
a) are a scruffy backpacker
b) are leaving Ecuador for the Caribbean
c) are spotted splitting from your girlfriend so that you would not seem to be travelling to gether (her cunning plan that if one of us was arrested, the other could make it to the British Embassy)
Then you get strip searched and have your arse viewed by a sweaty Ecuadorian police officer wearing elbow length rubber gloves and who doesn’t speak English and you only speak menu Spanish.
