First I will address issues of policy. I have lost my two favorite screwdrivers (call me a dork if you will) to San Jose airport screeners. There was nothing mischevious about my having them; either to be used as a weapon or to do something a bit less harmful such as disabling a smoke detector in the lavatory. I work on computers, cars, and any other gadgets that I take apart attempt to get back together in one piece. So, I had unknown contraband that was successfully captured by airport security. So why would a screwdriver be caught and not something else? I believe it's simply because it is easier to identify. It has a fixed shaft that is rarely sheathed and a pattern that is recognizable by almost anyone. This seems like fairly understandable policy, though I'm convinced that the airport makes a mint off of selling confiscated items. Perhaps they take a more civic-minded route and donate them however. But, what about the policy of hammers? Specifically those lacking a claw to remove nails. It is a blunt object that when stiking someone over the head can kill them or severely immobilize them. In past trips coming back on international flights however, I have brought six packs of bottles on board. Have the policy makers never witnessed a bar fight before--or a street fight depicted in West Side Story?
Going to Las Vegas I carried a huge glass jug of Rum on board. This had nothing to do with the screeners as I passed it through the xray machine w/o even a bag to conceal it's identity. So clearly, this policy is dictated by money rather than security. I'm sure that the hit to airport tax exempt stores would be immense as a result of a no glass container policy. But I'm shocked no less to see them serve alcoholic beverages on board in glass as well. Perhaps first class passengers are considered exempt from potentially being "bad" people. More recently however, traveling from San Francisco to Cleveland, I had my bag scrutinized by security and passed through again. It was then taken over to a separate area and sorted. I was asked if I had any kinds of sharp metal objects to which I replied "Not that I'm aware of." It turns out that I had left my motorcycle wheel lock in my bag.
This device goes through the drill holes on the brake roter and affixes itself so that a would-be-thief cannot simply roll the bike away. Amazingly, after describing the device to him, and my bag passing for a third time through the xray machine, they let me keep my lock. Interestingly enough, when the shackle is removed, the device looks extremely similar to a screw driver. But, I didn't consider the impact of the fact that they let me keep the lock until pondering it during flight time. The lock
could easily be used as a blunt object just as a hammer, or as a sharp instrument identical to a screw driver. The lock also had an attached wire cable that could have been just as easily used to strangle someone. I suddenly felt both disheartened by the fact that we are given a sense of false security after all of these measures have been put in place, but also at the realization that there is no statistical way to prevent all motivated team-oriented terrrorist activities and that the government and media have so seriously seeded fear and doubt that travelers don't even trust the person in the seats next to them. Others have completely stopped traveling by air, which seems somewhat ironic given the number of attacks on buses and trains elsewhere in the world.
The most amazing part of my San Francisco to Cleveland trip was upon unpacking my backpack at my destination, pulling out a folding spyder blade about 4" long
from the second pocket of my bag. My bag went through the xray three times under heavy scrutiny. This was not a fluke that the screener wasn't paying attention, it simply revealed both a flaw in the technology and a flaw of the systm. I thought of how I'd stripped down to my socks and held up my jeans for lack of a belt as I walked through the metal detector awkwardly balancing my boarding pass in the other hand to be checked again for the fourth time in a span of 2 minutes. I would have written the incident off save for the fact that a similar event happened on a prior trip. This time, I forgot to move my Swiss card from my carry-on to my check through baggage. If you don't know what a Swiss card is, I will explain briefly. A Swiss Card is a credit card sized plastic case that attempts to mimic some of the hugely convenient items on the more well known Swiss Army Knife.
It has a pen, a nail file, a toothpick, and a 3 inch knife blade all packed neatly in to the case so that it can be carried in a wallet. I was not carrying it in my wallet at the time, but instead, in the outermost pocket of my backpack closest to the xray; but just behind a calculator-like device called an enigma card I used to connect back to my office network when traveling. Because I usually cart around a fair amount of electronics when traveling, my bag almost always gets screened more than once and frequently searched. In this instance, my bag was screened multiple times and the search completely missed the Swiss card on both accounts because
of it's form factor and where it was packed. Similar to my experience with the foldable blade, I was shocked to find the object at my destination, and, though happy to still have it in my possession, very concerned about the real possibility that a highly motivated individual or individuals can beat the current screening system just as easily now than they could before 9/11 even with no shoes or belt on.
