Hello all,
As someone who works at the airport, DFW Int'l, I go through this everyday. I,
as most of the other employees have going through the metal detectors down to
an art. You quickly find what you can or can't get through with, without
setting off the machine. Setting off the machine is a guaranteed pat down. On
any given week you can expect to get the pat down treatment at least twice, and
that's in company uniform, and without setting anything off. Don't even think
of trying to get that Leatherman through, much less tools of any sort. As an
aircraft mechanic I sometime forget to take these things out of my pockets
before going home at the end of shift, mostly the leatherman. Good luck getting
it back to work, with out the virtual act of congress. I had on scanner tell me
she was going to confiscate it. That led up to a pretty good confrontation. I
believe that most of these folks do not read, as we were given a letter to
allows us to bring such things through, and usually does very little good. So
carrying the FAR's on hand searches would probably carry the same weight.
I have also heard that the sky marshal's would carry such an ammunition that
would not penetrate the aircrafts fuselage, and I to believe that they would
have to put a very good size hole to do any catastrophic damage.
OM content, it is still a pain to get a camera into work, as I did right after
the 9/11 catastrophe.
Have a great day and good shooting,
Smitty
Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 07:33:09 -0600
From: "Gary Edwards" <garyetx@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [OM] [OT] Film Xrays at airports etc[OT]
There is a persistant feeling among the non-technical that a single hole in
the hull of a pressurized airliner is catastrophic. Not so; they are
designed to tolerate a great deal of damage and steps were taken in the
design to prevent unchecked crack growth - so they do not rupture like a
balloon pricked by a pin. And the pressurization system can keep upwith a
significant leak long enough for a rapid but not emergency descent. Control
runs are redundant as well. A few bullet holes worry me a lot less than an
unchecked terrorist bent on collecting his promised ration of virgins.
I miss carrying my Leatherman, too. I used it to repair a non-reclining
business class seat over the Atlantic once. And I didn't charge Delta.
Gary EdwardsGet more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download :
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