Secure Areas in Airports

[AndyNZ]

You can still lock up your luggage if you are checking it. You need to first check in, have them inspect your bag with you there, then the airlines can put a security clearance tape on it and then you are allowed to lock it up. However with that said, I always carry mine on with me along with my reg and computer.

Doesn't work if you transit through the US, which I do regularly.

Even though my luggage is checked by security when I leave and clearly marked that it has been security checked, any locks or other form of securing the contents has been broken when I pick my bags up at the other end. 9 times out of 10, something is missing as well.

A couple of trips ago, I found that two pairs of nail scissors had been removed from my washbag which was in the hold. My god, what did they think I was going to do? Smash my way through the floor into the hold, find my bag and then dance down the aisle of the aeroplane a pair of nail scissors in each hand weaving a deadly dance as I overpowered the crew and took control of the aeroplane?

Sorry if I insult anyone, but US Homeland Security initiatives have just gone too far (and mostly a con to make the redneck population of the US feel comfortable - if you want to get something onto a plane or past customs, you can... and there is nothing they can do to stop it).

 

[AndyNZ]

Which reminds me of a TV interview I saw a few years ago, where an Israeli woman said "I always carry a bomb with me when I travel by plane", causing the interviewer to asky why.

"The chances of there being two bombs on the same plane are tiny, so it makes air travel safer for me".

 

[Cobra852]

Those minimum wage baggage handlers are all of the highest moral standards since they have been through an extensive background investigation to obtain the vaunted position of "Baggage Handler"!


Yeah Right!

 

[rsilva708]

Can these TSA locks be used on international baggage?

When I went to Belize last sept. I used TSA locks. No questions asked till I went to come home. In the Belize City airport, I had to open them up for them, but I was allowed to re lock them after they were checked by security. I also use TSA locks that have a mark on them that change color when they are opened with a TSA key, so I know when they have been opened.

 

[cdiver2]

I would much rather have it this way here in the U.S. than the current system. It was, in fact, that way right after 9/11 here at our local airport. The TSA screeners were set up right in front of the check-in counter and screened your bags as you checked in. They also allowed you to put your locks on the bags after screening them.

Now you just toss your bags on the conveyor belt and start praying. I've been flying back and forth to L.A. quite a bit this year and so far have had bags show up at my destination missing the TSA locks on three different occasions. The interesting part is that there was no notes in the bags from TSA saying that they had been inspected like there usually is. This leads me to suspect some baggage handler cutting the lock off to have a peek. So far, I've been lucky in that nothing has come up missing, since one of the bags was my bag full of dive equipment.

Edit: fixed a typo

I am not sure on this but when where and how your bags are inspected depends on the airline ( I think ). TACA airline in Miami inspected at the check in. I have also had my bags inspected at the check in at London Heathrow.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Those minimum wage baggage handlers are all of the highest moral standards since they have been through an extensive background investigation to obtain the vaunted position of "Baggage Handler"!


Yeah Right!

I agree with you. But again, the question is that if things can be stolen from secure areas, how secure are those areas and for that matter the traveling public? We hear of people robbing late night convenience stores with a weapon when they know the most they can get is $50 because the rest of the money is in a safe that can't be opened. Desperate people do desperate things. The TSA are not the folks who load the bags on the plane and I'm sure the vast majority of baggage handlers are honest, minimum wage or not. But plifered and missing luggage seems to indicate that there is a very large hole in the security system at airports. Weakest link, right?

 

[Diver Dennis]

I just returned from a month in Micronesia and as was posted, all bags were searched in front of me and I locked them afterwards.

 

[cdiver2]

Doesn't work if you transit through the US, which I do regularly.

Even though my luggage is checked by security when I leave and clearly marked that it has been security checked, any locks or other form of securing the contents has been broken when I pick my bags up at the other end. 9 times out of 10, something is missing as well.

A couple of trips ago, I found that two pairs of nail scissors had been removed from my washbag which was in the hold. My god, what did they think I was going to do? Smash my way through the floor into the hold, find my bag and then dance down the aisle of the aeroplane a pair of nail scissors in each hand weaving a deadly dance as I overpowered the crew and took control of the aeroplane?

Sorry if I insult anyone, but US Homeland Security initiatives have just gone too far (and mostly a con to make the redneck population of the US feel comfortable - if you want to get something onto a plane or past customs, you can... and there is nothing they can do to stop it).

Lets see you put the locks on in NZ and hand your bag over then it sits around for a few hours. Then off you go...land in the US and within a few minuets you are picking up your bags for customs. When would be the best time to go through a bag?

Even though my luggage is checked by security when I leave and clearly marked that it has been security checked, any locks or other form of securing the contents has been broken when I pick my bags up at the other end. 9 times out of 10, something is missing as well.

1/ You are the unluckiest person alive
2/ Every baggage handler in the US knows you and they are just waiting for you coming in.
3/ Maybe its being stolen in NZ before it leaves !!!!!

Sorry if three offends you

 

[cdiver2]

I agree with you. But again, the question is that if things can be stolen from secure areas, how secure are those areas and for that matter the traveling public? We hear of people robbing late night convenience stores with a weapon when they know the most they can get is $50 because the rest of the money is in a safe that can't be opened. Desperate people do desperate things. The TSA are not the folks who load the bags on the plane and I'm sure the vast majority of baggage handlers are honest, minimum wage or not. But plifered and missing luggage seems to indicate that there is a very large hole in the security system at airports. Weakest link, right?

Things can get through if you are an employee doing it, there are hundreds of ways into the secured areas without going through security IF you have the pass. To make workers go through the security areas every time they need to go in and out of a secure area would bring the airport to a standstill

 

[JamesD]

You still seem to think that the secure area is secure from things in and things out.

It's only supposed to be secure (to the best of my knowledge) from things getting INTO the area, once things are in the area they aren't anymore secure than anywhere else.