Air Safety Concerns (first hand uh ohs)

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Airlines are cheap.They'll never spend the money to do security totally right unless the public forces them to.

I was under the impression the feds are now in charge of the security and the airlines do not employ these people. I was also under the impression that is what we are paying the security fee for.

 

[BobH]

Yes the airlines have relinquished control of some aspects of security to the federal government and indeed they wanted to to save themselves the cost - but to my knowledge they have not supported the effort to get all baggage x-rayed to date and have even quietly appealed to the government to delay or abolish the requirement to buy the expensive machines. That is what I am referring to when I say they are "cheap." I know the tone of my message is a little harsh but that comes from having 25 years in public safety and seeing too many officials pay lip service to a problem in the hope the public will be gullible enough to let them get away with it. I have flown since 9/11 and although I have seen more security than was evident before I have also seen too many instances of illogical and lax procedures such as the ones that prompted Leigh123 to start this thread. Perhaps I need to be a little more patient and in time things will change for the better but as I said I have worked in a field where a good decision will save a life and a bad decision can sacrifice a life. As consumers we need to keep the pressure on the airline industry and the government to make things safer.

 

[madcoco]

The film thing seemed odd to me too....I travel with a photojournalist and I have always been more concerned about x-rays and film than he has. He tells me the x-rays aren't strong enough to do damage to the film!

The new Xray machines being installed which scans baggage can damage film.
http://www.kodak.com/cluster/global/en/service/tib/tib5201.shtml

As a former airline pilot who has been medically retired since last November but travel back in forth every few weeks;I now see things a bit differently from a passengers point of view.I travel with a CPAP breathing device and humidifier for apnea.At 1st they were tearing my machine apart every flight, asking me questionable questions on what it was and it did get annoying after a while. They are only doing their job.My last dozen flights or so it has not been touched.Things are improving in some areas. Some of what is going on I don't agree with, but the main thing is to try to get the confidence back in the flying public and keep our airlines and the public safe. And when incidents happen which questions your trust in the system, you should bring it to someone's attention.We still need to keep our guard up more now than ever.

 

[jfulcer]

Originally posted by BobH
1. Airlines are cheap.They'll never spend the money to do security totally right unless the public forces them to.

As another posted, the feds do the airport security, but of course, there is some level of security that the airlines need to provide themselves. The problem is they are unwilling to pass on the costs involved because of the cheap American traveler. Wouldn't it be great if every airline had to tack another $25 on to every ticket to pay for these security improvements? The problem is airlines will not do it unless they are forced, because then other airlines will have a $25 advantage.

2.Get rid of all carryon luggage. This will make security infinitely easier.

Again, as another posted mentioned, I have a $2000 CPAP machine, and a $2000 laptop I need to travel with. With the beating checked luggage gets, in no time at all my laptop and CPAP machine will be doorstops. No thanks.

3.Concentrate entire effort on x - raying all checked bags.

What about the shoe bomber? Should we also xray shoes all the time? What about belt buckles? Or Baseball caps? Or Hair decorations? All these items could possibly be used.

4.Air marshall on very plane (like El Al) to cancel the tickets of
those who are threats.

Good idea! Who pays for it? See my $25 idea above.

5.No politicians and most travelers can't agree on what is needed
so the airlines will remain free to treat their budgets as more
important than their security.

Politicians are afraid to alienate their voters. Would YOU vote for your representative if he said he needed to increase your taxes to pay for more airline security? Remember "Read my lips, no new taxes"???

 

[BobH]

After seeing how many times quotes were lifted from my post I rest my case. I was not suggesting life be made harder for people with medical apparatus to transport. The rest of the issues I decline to address. Have a nice day.