Well, I survived my flight.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

As those of you who perused the IMHO thread I started about whether or not I should fly on Sunday already know, I was pretty nervous and anxious about flying this past weekend. I know it was stupid, but that al Qaeda warning to US Muslims to stay off planes really freaked me out.

But no, I got to the airport, spent some time in the security line[sup]*[/sup], and hung out at the gate with all the other passengers. The flight was 100% uneventful. We didn’t even have any turbulence. The whole thing was so normal and safe-feeling that I felt like a total idiot about having been so afraid to fly.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank those of you who gave me reassurance before I had to fly. It really did help. God bless the friendly skies, is all I have to say.

[sup]*[/sup] Interesting security stuff I noticed: There were National Guardsmen (and women) walking around the airport, which was a big change. They were patting down and searching everyone in a wheelchair, because the wheelchair metal set off the detectors, so they had to do a personal search. They made one guy take off his ball cap so they could search through his hair. All the security folks were extremely polite, but yet extremely businesslike. The atmosphere was really different from pre-Sept. 11. I remember last time I flew before Sept. 11 at Sea-Tac, they had turned the sensitivity down on the metal detectors and were telling people they could go through the detectors with their keys and change in their pockets. Well, not any more.

2

i’m glad you had a good flight.

take that osama!!!

3

Good to hear this! Hope everyone has this experience. :slight_smile:

4

Just FYI, in all of my (pre-attack) experiences, this has always been the case. The metal detectors are not wide enough for a wheelchair to get through. The security guards frisk you instead of having you go through the metal detectors.

5

Interesting, Dignan. It just looked funny because the line for the metal detectors was so long that the folks in wheelchairs were queued up, sort of like they were about to run a race or something.

Is that offensive? I hope not.

6

Same experience here. Went two hours early, which meant I sat around picking my nose for 1 hr 45 minutes after getting checked in and through security in record time. I’ve heard that other than early morning, it’s not so bad.

7

Well, I’m glad to hear everything went well.

I am traveling to Newark through Chicago this week. I wasn’t concerned until this week when the media started interviewing airline personnel about the lack of security in the airports. Now I’m nervous.

N.