Transportation insecurity
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By Sonya Beard
In the future, there may be high-altitude traffic cops pulling over 747s at speeds exceeding 500 mph. But, for now, the Transportation Security Agency has to settle for conducting routine stops on the ground rather than in the sky.
Yet how effective are all these preventive measures in patrolling our skyways? In some cases, these precautions are the kind of joke that ― sorry ― bombs.
Many of these irrational guidelines are probably most effective at killing the travel bug.
In a U.S. Travel Association survey, four of the top five gripes involve checkpoint procedures at airports. The association also reported that passengers transiting through the U.S. complain about long, inefficient lines and inconsistent screening policies. And 43 percent of international travelers were so frustrated with the entry process that they recommend avoiding the U.S. and share their travel-mares with friends.
Admittedly, I’m not the most ideal traveler in the world. It wouldn’t surprise me if my mug shot was posted at airports around Asia.
I’ve been physically ushered out of a country by immigration officials. I’m notorious for making a scene during check-in when I’m charged extra for baggage, though I carry enough luggage for a family of three. And I’m habitually one of the last passengers to board flights, leaving inadequate time to peacefully resolve my list of travel hiccups.
I even managed to unwittingly get through a metal detector with a knife in my handbag. It had a powder-pink handle with a matching case, so that might have spared me from being added to a no-fly watch list.
My appreciate-hate relationship with the TSA started en route to an underdeveloped country where I was responsible for my own snacks. I resorted to the American staple, a jar of peanut butter and jelly. However my basic means of survival was in violation of the no-liquids rule and swiftly confiscated at Incheon International Airport.
This tragic loss was hard to digest considering this was the same airport that a year before had neglected to detect the mini machete in my carry-on. But somehow I posed a greater risk of detonating a peanut butter-and-jelly bomb?
Did this foolery start with the unsuccessful underwear bomber in 2009? Thankfully that didn’t initiate a ban on intimate apparel. Or maybe it was in 2001, when the shoe bomber succeeded in requiring passengers to bare their feet as they proceed through body scanners. The most successful failure had to be the liquid explosives plot in 2006. It sparked the most strictly enforced prohibitive guidelines regarding check-in procedures.
Once at the Shanghai-Pudong International Airport, I tried to carry on a bottle of water to soothe my parched throat. A crew member informed me I couldn’t board with more than 100ml of liquid. I asked her why the souvenir shops sold water near the boarding gate if it was unlawful to bring it on the plane?
I expected her to concede and make an exception in my case. I stared her down as minutes ticked away until liftoff. Puzzled, she shrugged but didn’t budge.
With only moments remaining, I pondered whether to board the Gobi Desert-dry cabin or stay in Shanghai and chug water to my throat’s content.
Then she countered, ``You know our airline didn’t make these rules; these are the laws from your country.”
Surely, she knew I wasn’t to blame for this bureaucratic obstacle course. She knew good and well the TSA never solicited my opinion before devising pointless rules that would inconvenience travelers around the globe. But I had no comeback. I bowed in defeat and boarded the plane.
It’s true there are seen, unseen and unforeseen dangers out there. For that, travelers are eternally grateful that the intelligence community is always on guard.
The concern is, however, that valuable time, money and effort are being diverted from real threats because they are too preoccupied with peanut butter and jelly.
Sonya Beard, a university writing instructor in Seoul, enjoys complaining more than traveling. She can be reached at sonyabeardreports@gmail.com.