Patience is a virtue for both passengers and TSA
A New York Times article states the obvious, passengers should be patient with security procedures and inspectors should be sensitive and patient with passengers. Learn your rights, pack carefully and be upfront.
More changes are expected to come to airports around the world as governments explore new security technology, including the much debated full-body scanners, which will soon be used in more American airports. Passengers traveling within the United States may notice an increase in random screenings, behavior detection officers who look for signs that passengers may be hiding something, and a wider use of tools like explosive-trace detection devices, not just at the checkpoint but throughout the airport.
For passengers, all of this means coping with an onerous, shifting security routine fraught with privacy concerns.
India facing mounting airline hijack concerns
It’s not only the U.S.A. that is under terrorist threats these days. India just announced increased security regarding their air transport system. Their intelligence operatives have picked up signals that there may be a coming airline hijacking.
India has beefed-up security measures and remains wary of militant threats after the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people and raised tensions with nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan.
“We have alerted our civil aviation security people against a possible attempt to hijack an Indian airlines flight,” U.K. Bansal, the special secretary for internal security in the Home (interior) Ministry said.
“This would obviously be from terrorist groups who are arraigned against Indian interests,” he added, but did not specify which group.
Businessman sues BA ‘for treating men like perverts’
British Airways is being sued by a man who was forced to move from the side of his pregnant wife because BA does not allow men to sit next to unaccompanied children.
Mirko Fischer has accused the airline of branding all men as potential sex offenders and says innocent travellers are being publicly humiliated.
In line with the policy, BA cabin crew patrol the aisles before take-off checking that youngsters travelling on their own or in a different row from their parents are not next to a male stranger.
If they find a man next to a child or teenager they will ask him to move to a different seat. The aircraft will not take off unless the passenger obeys.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
