From: Alan Bostick <abostick@netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 09:42:43 -0800 (PST)
To: Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Airport security [no such thing]
In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19970114222343.006b6f9c@192.100.81.126>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9701150911.A2696-0100000@netcom22>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, Lucky Green wrote:

> I recently took a domestic flight from the Oakland, CA airport. While
> waiting for the airplane, I spent some time observing the security measures
> at the X-ray machine.

[snip]

> Then came the big one: A man wearing a beer truck driver uniform approached
> the checkpoint. On his hand truck were two kegs of beer. For those
> unfamiliar with such objects, a keg of beer is a cylindrical stainless
> steel container, about 1.5 feet tall with about 1 foot diameter.
> 
> I was wondering what the procedure for handling these rather large steel
> containers would be.  Would they be X-rayed? How much shielding would the
> steel provide for the contents? Much to my surprise, the man did not
> approach the X-ray machine. Instead, he went straight for the "exit only"
> walkway. The guard posted there to make sure that nobody would enter
> through the exit gave the fellow only a cursory glance as he entered the
> "secure" area unchallenged.
> 
> I was flabbergasted. They let a man with two *large steel containers* enter
> unchecked? No asking for ID, no X-ray? I struck up a conversation with the
> beer truck driver. I asked him why the kegs did not get X-rayed. He looked
> at me with an expression of utter lack of understanding and answered: "They
> are too heavy to be put on the [conveyor] belt."
> 
> Right... We wouldn't want to have these 50 pound steel barrels jam the
> X-ray machine.

Was he wearing a ID badge with a photo?  Was he known to the security
staff?

One wonders, do they x-ray or inspect the food that goes to the 
snack bars, the liquor that goes to the bars, the merchandise that goes 
to the newsstands and gift shops?  Do they even inspect the hand baggage
of flight crews?

It isn't that airport security is lax; it's that providing security runs
at cross-purposes with providing access for the general traveling public 
and the services they expect.

Alan Bostick               | To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height
mailto:abostick@netcom.com | of elegance.
news:alt.grelb             |      Jean Genet
http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~abostick